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^bz/^^/ ^hCT^ crU.^ ^ /^- ^"trr-i^nz^
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fU^yhiyh
ci.s>'-" :
LECTURES
THE HISTORY OF ROME,
fhom
the earliest tbies to the fall of the
^\t:stern empire.
B. G. NIEBUHR.
EDITED BY
DR. LEONHARD SCHMTTZ, F.R.S.E.,
BECTOB OF THE HIGH SCIIOOI. OF EDIXBUBGH.
ftcronti iStiition.
WITH KTERY ADDITIOK DERIVABLE FROM DR. ISLEr's GERMAN EDITION.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
TAYLOR, WALTON, AND MABERLY,
UPPER GOWER STREET, AND IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW
M.ncco.i..
K
I860
LONDON
PItlNTED BY J. WEKTIIEIMER AND CO.,
CIBCU9 PLACE, FINSBURY CIRC09,
7
6
i^/^/f
e
>/^ ^
PREFACE.
When In 1844, I published tlie Lectures of Niebuhr,
embracing the History of Rome from the commencement
of the first Punic war down to the death of Constantine, I
entertained a strong hope that Niebuhr's friends in Germany
would be roused to a sense of duty, and no longer with-
hold from the world his valuable relics in his own language.
In that hope I was, for a time, disappointed; for no sooner
were the Lectures published in this country than there
appeared, at once, advertisements of two German transla-
tions of them. The idea of translating from English into
German a work of which there existed in Germany numerous
manuscripts containing the very words and expressions of
Niebuhr, and which required only the carcfid and conscien-
tious supervision of an editor, seemed to be a somewhat
preposterous undertaking. If the Lectures were to be
published in Germany, assuredly the German public had a
right to expect that the exact language of the historian should
be scrupulously preserved, which is an impossibility in a re-
translation, in the execution of which, moreover, no use was
to be made of the manuscript notes taken by the students
IV PREFACE.
during the delivery of the Lectures. Only one of the adver-
tised translations, however, made its appearance; and that
was more than enough, for it bore so many marks of careless-
ness, and displayed so flagrant a want of knowledge of the
English language, that even the most moderate expectations
were disappointed. As there was reason for believing that
every succeeding volume of Niebuhr's Lectures which might
appear in this country would meet with the same fate in
Germany as the first two, and that an unpardonable wrong
would thus be done to the memory of the author, M. Marcus
Nicbuhr, the son of the historian, and some of the more
intimate friends and pupils of Niebuhr issued an announce-
ment, that they would forthwith set about preparing
a German edition of all Kiebuhr's Lectures, on the only
principle that could secure for his memory that honour among
his own countrymen to which he is so justly entitled. Thus
the very circumstance which at first had seemed to thwart
my hopes contributed in reality to their speedy realisation.
The task of preparing the German Edition was undertaken
by M. Marcus Niebuhr, Dr. Islcr of Hamburgh, and Professor
Classen of Llibeck. My co-operation also was solicited ;
but other engagements prevented my accepting the honour-
able proposal ; and it was finally arranged that I should under-
take the Editorship in England of the whole Series of
Lectures. The first volume, containinsc the Lectures on the
History of Home from the earliest times down to the com-
mencement of the first Punic war, edited by Dr. Isler,
appeared at Berlin in 1846. Of this a translation is now pre-
sented to the English public. As to tlie materials of which
the German editor has made use, and the plan he has followed,
I shall do best to let him speak for himself " The History
of the Roman Republic," lie says, " is one of those few subjects
PREFACE. V
on which Nicbuhr gave two courses of Lectures in the
University of Bonn; the first in the winter of 1826-7, and
the second during the winter of 1828-9- In the summer of
1829, he lectured on the history of the Roman Emperors
down to the overthrow of the Western Empire. In the course
of 1826, he did not carry the History further than to the
time of Sulla ; but in many parts of it he entered more minutely
into the criticism and analysis of the existing materials; and
this circumstance prevented him from carrying the History as
fur down as in the latter course of 1828. "V\Tiat is here
presented to the reader, consists essentially of the latter course
of Lectures; but all that is of interest or importance in the
earlier one of 1826 has been incorporated, wherever it seemed
appropriate. This combination of the two courses of Lectures
into one, though it does not always pi-eserve the exact form
and order in which Xiebuhr related the History, yet does not
contain a single idea, nay hardly a single word, which Avas not
actually uttered by him. If this should be thought an arbitrary
mode of proceeding, the editor takes the responsibility upon
himself; but he must at the same time state, that he con-
sidered this to be the way in which the treasures entrusted to
his care could be disposed of in the most careful and con-
scientious manner. A considerable number of manuscripts
have been collated, and all the available materials have been
scrupulously sifted and weighed, in order to ensure the value
of the work as much as possible. The editor's labour has been
of a purely philological nature, inasmuch as it was necessary
to form, as fiir as it could be done, a genuine text out of a mass
of notes presenting such discrepancies and inaccuracies as natu-
rally occur in notes hurriedly made by students in the lecture-
room. Those who are acquainted with such matters know
that the formation of the text consists not only in restoring
I
vi PREFACE.
the exact expressions of the Lecturer, but also in tracing the
facts stated to their respective authorities, wherever practi-
cable."
Dr. Isler further states, that when his manuscript was ready
for the press, it was revised by Professor Classen ; and that
M. I\Iarcu3 Niebuhr, who afterwards undertook the revision of
the proof-sheets, also suggested several improvements. From
these statements, the reader will see that the German editor
had greater advantages than could have fallen to the lot of
any one undertaking the task in this country ; for he not only
had notes from two distinct courses of Lectures on the same sub-
ject, one of which was supplementary to the other, but he was
assisted by those most deeply interested in the work. As,
moreover, the three volumes of Niebuhr's immortal History
treat of the same period as that contained in these Lectures,
the former always served as a corrective, wherever the manu-
scripts of the latter were obscure or imperfect.
Under these circumstances, I might have confined myself
to the mere translation of the present Lectures; but as I
possessed some very excellent manuscripts, I thought it right
to institute a careful collation of them; and my labour has
been amply rewarded, for I found a considerable nimiber of
most interesting remarks and statements which do not occur
in the German edition, so that in many respects the present
volume is more complete and perfect than the work on which
it is founded. Dr. Isler has not di\'ided his edition into Lec-
tures, because the Lectures in the two courses did not always
correspond, or treat of the same subject; but in the present
work the Lectures have been kept distinct, partly because I
consider that division to be essential to a right understanding
of the work, and partly for the sake of consistency, the same
plan having been adopted in the two volumes published in
PREFACE. Vll
1844. In doing this, however, I was under the necessity of
making some Lectures disproportionately long, as passages of
considerable extent or even entire Lectures from the course
of 1826 had to be inserted in Lectures of the course of 1828;
while, by the transfcrcnee of passages from one Lecture to a
more appropriate place in another, some Lectures will appear
rather short.
It may perhaps be asked, What is the use of publishing the
Lectures on that portion of Koman History on which we
possess the author's own elaborate volumes? To this it may
be replied, that the present Lectures contain a more popular
and familiar exposition of the subject, which in the three
volumes is treated in a severe style, little calculated to attract
ordinary readers. They, therefore, may be used as an intro-
duction to, or as a running commentary on, Nicbuhr's great
work. I also agree with the German editor in thinking that
it does not seem right to suppress any part of the Lectures on
Roman History, one of the objects of their publication being
to give as vivid a picture as possible of the extraordinary
personal and intellectual character of Niebuhr; an object
which can be attained only by the complete and entire publi-
cation of all that he has ever said on the history of Rome.
These Lectures, moreover, as Dr. Isler remarks, " distinctly
show the different objects which Niebuhr had in view
in preparing a work for the press, and in lecturing
from the professorial chair; each, in his opinion, demanded a
totally different mode of treatment, whence many points are
set forth in these Lectures more clearly and distinctly, nay
sometimes even more minutely than in the larger work. The
reader need only be reminded of the Introductory Lectures on
the Sources of Roman History, of the Discussion on the Sa-
turnian verse, and the like. Lastly, it must not be forgotten,
vm PREFACE.
that on many subjects these Lectures contain the latest and
most matured opinions of Nicbuhr. The revision of the
lust edition of the first volume of his History was finished by
him, chiefly, in the year 1826; and the additions to the third
edition belong to the year 1827. A mind like that of
Nicbuhr never ceased acquiring fresh stores of knowledge, and
making new inquiries, although the principal results were
already firmly established. Sundry new fragments of ancient
writers also were discovered after the publication of the last
edition, which led him to modify the views he had exjjressed
in his printed work. In regard to the period treated of in
the third volume, the reader will find in these Lectures many
additions and corrections ; for the greater part of that volume
was composed as early as 1812, and if Niebuhr had lived to
prepare a new edition of it, he would undoubtedly have intro-
duced many important alterations. Hence even those who by
a careful study have acquired a thorough familiarity with the
three volumes of the Koman History, will find in these Lec-
tures much that is new and strikino-."
O
L. SCHMITZ.
Edinburgh, Nuvemhe7\ 1847.
CONTENTS.
LECTURE 1.
Origin of Roman History 1
Impossibility of the earliest history 1
Numerical schemes in the chronological statements 3
Saecula of the Etruscans 4
Ancient Lays 5
Etruscan History , 7
The emperor Claudius 7
Saturnian verse 9
Neniae 10
Ej)ic poems 11
Family records and family vanity 12
National vanity 12
The Pelasgians 14
Samothracc 15
Siculians, Itali, Ocnotrians, Peucetians, Liburnians, Tyirlicnians, Opicans,
Apulians, Volscians, Aeqiiians, Sabcllians, Umbrians 16
LECTURE II.
Siculians in Italy, Aborigines 19
Latins 19
Polarity of Traditions 20
Cascans 21
Sacrani, Ver Sacnun, Prisci, Prisci Latini 22
Origin of the Latin language 22
Tradition about the Trojan settlement in Latium 23
Alban Chronology 34
Alba Longa; populi Albcnses 24
LECTURE III.
The thirty Latin towns 26
Roma, the town on the Palatine 27
Romulus and his descent 28
Romidus and Remus 37
Rcmuria 37
X CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Asvlum 33
Rape of the Sabine women 33
Union of the Romans and Sahines ,, 34
Death of Romulus 35
Di\'ision of the population 35
The Sahincs 36
Towns on the Palatine and Quirinal 37
Union of the two states 37
LECTURE IV.
Division of the population 38
The Sabines and the Palatine and Quirinal 39
Double state 39
Numa Pompilius 41
Tullus Hostilius 41
War with Alba 42
The third tribe 46
Ancus Marcius 46
War with the Latins 46
Foundation of Ostia 47
Origin of the Plebs 48
LECTURE V.
Tarquinius Priscus and his Greek descent 48
The Cloaca maxima 53
Ti'aees of Rome ha\'ing then been a great state 54
The centuries doubled 55
The Etruscans and T^TThenians 57
Sen-ius Tidlius (Mastama) 67
Constitution of Sendus Tullius 69
Gentes and Curiae 71
LECTURE VL
The plebes or commonalty, and the clients 74
LECTURE Vn.
The plebeian tribes , 82
The centuries 85
LECTURE Vm.
Centuries continued 86
Census 90
Further legislation of Servius Tullius 93
Relation to the Latins 94
Extension of the city 96
The cloacae 97
Mound of Servius Tullius 98
LECTURE IX.
Criticism on the tradition about Mastarna 99
L. Tarquinius Supcrbus . 102
CONTENTS. XI
LECTURE X. ^.^„
PAGE
War with the Latins 103
Treaty with Carthage 104
Military constitution 105
L. Junius Bmtus 106
Abolition of the kingly government 1 09
LECTURE XI.
The consulship 110
Valerius Poplicola and the Valerian laws 113
LECTURE Xn.
Porsena 114
War of the Etruscans against Rome 115
Mucins Scaevola 117
Peace of Porsena 119
Diminution of the tribes 121
LECTURE Xni.
Relation of the Latins 121
Battle of lake Regillus 122
Isopolity 124
Treaty of Sp. Cassius, league of the Romans, Latins and Hemicans 125
The dictatorship 125
War with the Auruncans 126
LECTLTIE XIV.
Attempts to bring about a counter-revolution 128
The law of debt 130
The nexum 133
LECTURE XV.
Resistance of the plebes and their secession 135
LECTURE XVL
Peace between the two estates 141
Tribunes of the plebes 143
The story of Coriolanus inserted in a wrong place 146
LECTURE XVn.
Division of the Volscian wars 148
League with the Hernicans 149
Sp. Cassius 150
The agrarian law 152
LECTURE XVm.
The agi-arian law continued 154
Dincrcnce between property and possession 156
Tiie lex Cassia 157
Execution of Sp. Cassius 15S
Xll CONTENTS.
LECTURE XIX. ^^^^
The consuls clcctcil liy the senate and curios alone 1 60
The election of the consuls divideil between cui-ies and centui-ics 161
War against Vcii 1 62
The Fahii declare for the plebeians 162
The Fabii on the Crcmera, and their desti-uction 163
Accusation of the consuls by the tribunes 165
LECTURE XX.
Murder of Cn. Gcnucius 167
Volero Publilins 167
The PuUilian rogations 168
Mode of i)roceeding in the assemblies of the people 169
LECTURE XXL
Resistance of Appius Claudius 171
Wars with the Volscians and Aequians 1 73
Plague at Rome 176
LECTLTiE XXIL
C. Tcrentilius Harsa and the TerentUian law 177
Kaeso Qiunctius 180
Cincinnatus 181
Appius Herdonius 182
Condemnation of Volscius 183
LECTLTIE XXin.
Coriolanus 184
Peace Avith the Volscians 190
LECTURE XXIV.
Altered Relation of the Latins to Rome 191
Commotions at Rome 193
P. Mucius 193
Embassy to Athens 194
Ilcnnodonis 195
First dccemvirate 196
Equalisation of the rights of patricians and plebeians 197
Second dccemvirate and new constitution 197
LECTURE XXV.
Unlimited right to make a will 198
The law of debt 201
TIic centuries, a national court of justice -02
Tyranny of the decemvirs 204
Death of Virginia 208
Secession of the plebes 208
Overthrow of the dccemvirate 209
LECTURE XXVL
Restoration of the old constitution 209
CONTENTS. xili
PAGE
Veto of the tribunes, and patrician tribunes 210
Death of App. Claudius and Sp. Oppius 212
The Roman criminal law 213
Lex Iloratia Valeria 216
Ilortensiau Law 217
Victories over the Aequiaus and Saltines 218
The different quaestors 219
The couuubium between the two estates, and the Canuleian law 220
LECTURE XXVII.
The military tribunes 222
The censorship 226
LECTURE XXVni.
Famine at Rome, Sp. Maelins 230
Tlie executive power of the consuls , 232
The quaestorship openod to the plebeians, aud plebeian senators 232
The Campauians 234
Vietoiy over the Aequiaus 230
The agrarian law 237
Coloniae Romaniae 238
InsuiTCction of the soldiers 238
LECTURE XXIX.
Destruction of Fidcnac 240
Mihtary aH'airs and pay of the army 241
Siege of Veil 243
The Alban lake and its emissariuni 24.'j
LECTURE XXX.
The taking of Veii and the disputes between patricians and plebeians
resulting from it S.'JO
War with the Faliscans and Vulsinians 251
Camillus and his exile 252
The migration of the Gauls 253
The Celts 255
LECTURE XXXI.
The Celts 256
The Gauls invade Italy 259
Emba.ssy to the Gauls 261
Battle of the Alia 262
The Gauls in Rome 205
LECTURE XXXII.
Peace ^vith the Gauls, and their departure 268
Consequences of the Gallic conquest 272
Rebuilding of the city 273
Foenus uueiarium 275
Usury 275
XIV CONTENTS.
LECTURE XXXIII.
PAGE
Etruscan Wars 276
Four new tribes 276
M. Manlius 279
Tribuneship of C. Licinius Stolo and_L. Sextius Lateranus 282
The Liciuian rogations 283
LECTURE XXXIV.
Dictatorship of Camillus 285
Temple of Concord 289
The Consulship divided between patricians and plebeians 289
The praetorship 290
Ludi Eomani 290
The curule aediles 291
LECTURE XXXV.
Triumviri reipublicae constituendae 292
Invasion of the Senonian Gauls 293
Alliance with the Latins and Hernicans 294
Alliance with the Samnites 296
War in Etraria 297
Settlement of debts 298
Third invasion of the Gauls 298
LECTURE XXXVI.
C. Marcius Rutilus 299
The colonies 301
Origin of the Samnites 302
InsiuTCCtion at Capua 304
Constitution of the Samnites 304
The first Samnite war 306
M. Valerius Coi'vus 308
Battle of mount Gaurus '. 309
P. Decius Mus saves the Roman army 311
LECTURE XXXVn.
Insun*ection in the Roman aimy 312
Progress of legislation 314
Military arrangements of the Romans 315
Peace with the Samnites 317
Relation between Rome and Latium 318
War with the Latins 319
T. Manlius 320
The Roman anny 321
Battle of Vcseris 321
P. Dcoius 323
LECTURE XXXVIII.
Battle of Trifanum 323
Submission of tlie Latins 324
Q. Publilius Philo and his legislation 325
CONTENTS. XV
PAGE
End of the Latin war 326
Mimicipia 327
Latin colonies 330
LECTURE XXXIX.
War with the Sidicines 334
Colonies at Cales and Fregellae 334
Now circumstances of the Romans and their relations to Greece 335
Tarentum and Alexander of Epirus 337
LECTURE XL.
InsmTdction of Privernum 343
Peace with the Gauls 346
Embassy to Alexander of Macedonia 347
Palaepolis and Neapolis 348
LECTURE XLI.
Outbreak of the second Samnite war 349
LECTURE XLIL
M. Valerius Con-us, L. Papirius Cursor, and Q. Fabius Maximus 3.')8
Fabius defeats the Samnites, and escapes from Papirius 3G0
Death of Papius Brutulus 362
Defeat of Caudium 364
The Romans break through the peace 366
LECTURE XLIIL
Defeat of the Romans at Lautulae 367
Colony at Luceria 368
The Romans build a fleet 372
Art among the Romans 373
Rise of the Etiniscans 374
LECTURE XLIV.
Taking of Bovianum 374
Papirius Cursor appointed dictator 375
War with the Hemicans and their subjugation 376
End of the second Samnite war 378
Reduction of the Aequian'? 379
Rome's connection with the Marsians 379
The Etruscan war 380
The Ciminian forest 380
Battle of Sutrium 387
Colony at Narnia 383
Cleonymus 883
LECTURE XLV.
Appius Claudius the Blind 3S4
Via Appia 389
Aqiux Appia 3'JO
Cn. Flavins 39 1
xvi CONTENTS.
PAGE
Abolition of the ncxiim 393
The Ogulnian law 394
LECTURE XLVI.
The third Samnite war 395
Tlie war transferred to Etniria 396
Battle of Sentinum 401
P. Decius devotes him'^clf for his coiiutry 401
LECTURE XLVn.
End of the third Samnite war 403
War with tlie Sabines 405
Embassy to Epidaiirus 40G
Draining of lake Velinus 408
The falls of Terni 408
LECTURE XLVIII.
The Macnian law 409
The Hortcnsian law 410
Triumviri capitales 414
LECTURE XLIX.
War against the Scnonian Gauls 416
C. Fabricius Luscinus and M.' Ciirins Dentatus 417
Ti. Coruncanius 418
Outbreak of the war with Tarcntum 419
PpThus of Epinis 421
LECTURE L.
PjTrhus, continued 421
Cinea.s 424
Battle of Heraclea 427
Pyn-lnis attempts to march against Rome 428
Sends Cineas to Rome 429
LECTURE LL
Pyn-lius returns to Tarentum 430
Roman Emljassy to Pyn-luis 43 1
Battle of Aseulum 432
Pyrrhus goes to Sicily, and retm-ns to Italy 434
Battle of Taurasia (Bcncventum) 435
Defeat of Pyn-hus 436
LECTURE LIT.
Peace with Samnium 437
Tarentum taken by the Romans 438
Suiijugation of Italy 439
THE HISTORY OF ROME
FROM
THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE FIRST PUNIC AVAR.
LECTURE I.
At the time when Fabius began to write the history of Rome,
his materials consisted of the annales pontificum, the fasti, the
libri pontificum and augurales, the laudationes, and poetical lays.
Of the mea^reness of these materials we have already satisfied
ourselves; but what was their authenticity? They might have
been not less authentic than our INIcrovingian and other ancient
annals ; nay, as the annales pontificum began ab initio rerum Eoma-
narum, or at least from the time of Nunia, theij might have been
very authentic; in them, as we are informed by Dionysius,
the pontiffs had recorded with the utmost accuracy every year
of the kingly period ; and the triumphal fasti even mentioned
the very days on which the kings hod triumphed over their
enemies.
But the consideration that the early history, such as it has
come down to us, is impossible, must lead us to enquire whether
the earliest annals are deserving of credit. Our task now is to
prove that the earliest history does contain impossibilities, that
it is poetical, that the very portions which are not of a poetical
nature, are forgeries, and, consequently, that the history must
be traced back to ancient lays and to a chronology which was
invented and adapted to these lays at a later period.
The narrative concerning the primitive times given by Livy
dilfers considerably from that of Dionysius; Livy wrote his
first book without assigning the events to their particular
years, and with an extraordinary want of criticism: he here
evidently followed Ennius, as we may see by comparing the
fragments of the poet's writings with tlie statements of Livy;
compare, for example, Livyii. 10 with the fragment of Ennius:
VOL. I. B
2 IMPOSSIBILITY OF
Teque pater Tiberine tuo cum numine sancto. Dionysius, at-
tempting to make out a true history, proceeds on tlie supposition
that the detail of Roman history can be restored, and that the
historical ground- work is only overgrown with legendary tales ;
he endeavours to reconstruct the former in an arbitrary man-
ner, and inserts his pragmatical speeches in his account of the
mythical ages, whereby he often makes himself truly ridiculous.
Livy, on the other hand, wrote the history such as he found
it in the most ancient books and as it appeared to him the
most beautiful; he gives it in its ancient form before it was
artificially corrupted; and hence his narrative is the purest
source for the history of those times.
The story of the miraculous conception of Romialus is an
historical impossibility; although in the school of Piso it was
metamorphosed into an history : the same must be said of the
account of the rape of the Sabine women, whose number was
thirty in the original tradition, and also of the ascension of
Romulus during an eclipse of the sun.^ Such also is the cha-
racter of the long reign ofXuma with its uninterrupted peace,
and of his marriage with the goddess Egeria, which among the
contemporaries of Scipio was as implicitly believed as the
history of the Punic wars. The story of the combat of the
Horatii and the Curiatii, who were born on the same day of
two sisters has a very ancient poetical character.^ We next
come to Tarquinius Priscus, who was already married to
Tanaquil when he migrated to Rome in the eighth year of the
reign of Ancus (which lasted twenty-three years). Tarquinius
liimself reigned thirty-eight years and<was at his death upwards
of eighty years old, leaving behind him children under age
who were educated during the forty-three years of Servius's
reign, so that Tarquinius Superbus must have been at least
fifty years old when he slew his father-in-law. Tanaquil lived
to see t]iis crime, and required Servius to take an oath not to
resign his crown: at that time she must have been 115 years
old. One of the first features in the story of Servius is that on
one occasion in his infancy his head was encircled with a flame,
which Dionysius attempts to explain in a natural way. CoUa-
tinus is said to have been the son of a brother of Tarquinius
■ The moment at which Mars overcame Hia was likewise marked by an
eclipse of the sun. — N.
' Li^-j-'s account is already somewliat disfigiu'cd. — N.
THE EARLIEST UISTORY. 3
Piiscus, and this brotlicr, it is stated, Avas born previously to
the migration of Tarquinius Friscus to Rome, that is, 135 years
before the expulsion of Tarquinius Supcrbus; and Collatinus
is described as being a young man thirty years old, at a time
upwards of 120 years after his father's birth. Brutus is said
to have been Tribunus celerum, which was the first place in the
equestrian order, in which he represented the king, assembled
the senate, and was obliged to perform the most important
sacrifices; and this place the king is stated to have given to a
man, whom he thoxight to be an idiot and whom, for this
reason, he had deprived of the management of his own pro-
perty ! Brutus, the story goes on to say, feigned idiocy for
the purpose of escaping the envy and avarice of the king. He
is described as the son of a daughter of Tarquinius Priscus,
and as dreading to enrage the king by taking possession of his
own property: — but Tarquinius did not even belong to the
same gens. At the beginning of the reign of Tarquinius
Superbus, Brutus was only a child, and immediately after the
king's expulsion he appears as the father of sons who have
attained the age of manhood.
All these chronological points, to which many others might
be added, even down to the time of Camillus, bear so much
the character of absurdity and historical impossibility, that we
are obviously entitled to criticise. Now let us remember the
two-fold sources of the earliest history of Eome, namely, the
chronological: the /o5^i and annales pontificum ; and the un-
chronoloo'ical : the lays, lauclationes, the libri jwntificum and
nurjurales. As regards the chronological sources, in the most
ancient account, that of Fabius, we find 3G0 years reckoned
from the building of Rome to its destruction by the Gauls,
exactly the number of the 7eV;; in Attica, which number was
declared, even by the Greeks, especially by Aristotle, from
whom the grammarians Pollux, Ilarpocration and others de-
rived their information, to be that of the days in the solar
year. J>ut the number 3G0 if accurately examined Avill be
found to be the mean number between the days of the solar
and those of the lunar year, and the nearest to each that can
be conveniently divided. Of this period of 360 years, the
time assigned to the kings was, according to the earlier calcula-
tion, 240 years, and that to the republic 120 years. Thisnuiu-
ber has as much of a mathematical character as that of the
4 SAECULA OF THE ETKUSCANS.
Indian ages of the world, tlie Babylonian and other Oriental
numbers. The 120 years assigned to the republic is adopted
even by those writers who calculate the whole period at 365
years. Whether 120 years be correct, must be determined
acccrding to the view respecting the time at which the Capitol
was consecrated. That the annales pontificum were destroyed
in the Gallic conflagration is strongly confirmed by Claudius
(vmdoubtedly Claudius Qviadrigarius) as quoted by Plutarch,
and indirectly by Livy, who could not state it directly, since
he would thereby have declared the first books of his own
work valueless; it is moreover confirmed by the fact, that the
eclipse of the sun in the year a.u. 350, the first which was
actually observed, was mentioned in the annals, whereas the
earlier ones were subsequently calculated, and, as we may safely
infer, considering the means of the science of that time, were,
of course, calculated wrongly. For the first 240 years we have
seven kings, whose reigns are said to have been of extraordinary
lengthy for the most part somewhere about forty years each.
Even Newton expresses his opinion of the improbability of a
succession of princes reigning for so long a period, and assigns
to the reign of a king as a mean number, seventeen years.
But the truest parallel is to be found in the case of the doges
of Venice, who like the kings of Rome were elective princes;
In a period of 500 years (a.d. 800 — a.d. 1300) Venice had
forty doges, so that there were eight in each century. Xow if
we closely examine the number of the Roman kings, we shall find
a numerical artifice just as among the Orientals. I shall pre-
mise the following considerations to illustrate what I mean.
The Etruscans had, as the foundation of their chronology,
two kinds o^ saecula, physical and astronomical; the latter con-
tained 1 1 years, as the supposed mean number of the physical ;
and by a double intercalation the calendar was restored so as
to leave a wonderfully small difference. 110 of these years
were nearly equal to 132 years, of ten months each, and this
consequently formed an astronomical period. The physical
saeculum was thus defined by the Etruscans : the first saeculum
was determined by the life-time of the person who lived the
longest, of all those that had been alive at the foundation of a
state, the second was indicated by the longest life of the persons
living at the conclusion of the Qvst' saeculum, and so on. Kow
we find an ancient tradition in Plutarch and Dion Casslus
ANCIENT LAYS. 5
(Dionysius lias at least an allusion to it) tliat Xuma was born
on the day of the foundation of Rome, so that probably his
death in the year a.u. 77, determined the first saeculum of
Rome.3 If this was the case wc see the reason why thirty-
eight years (the number of the nundines in a year of ten months)
were assigned to Romulus and thirty-nine to Numa. In regard
to the last live kings there existed historical traditions, but they
were not sufficient for the whole period. It was certain that
Rome had had far more than five kings, and as there were still
wanting one as the founder of the Ramnes and another as that
of the Titles, a number was chosen which had a sacred meaning,
namely, the number of the planets, etc. The first half of 240
years is the end of the 120th, that is exactly the middle of the
reign of the fourth among the kings, manifestly an artificial
invention; twenty-three years were assigned to him in order
to make them begin with the year 110, some striking number
being always desired for the beginning of a reign and 110
being the secular number. The ancient year had ten months,
and 132 of such years are equal to 110 of the later ones; it was
therefore necessary to place the reign of Ancus between 110
and 132. The period between 77 and 110, or thirty-two years,
was naturally assigned to Tullus Ilostilius. Tarquinius Priscus
reigned until a.u. 170, half a century being added to half the
years of the kingly period, and his reign accordingly lasted
thirty-eight years. The twenty-five years of the last king may
be historical ; but it is possible also that a quarter of a century
was assigned to him. The period from A.U. 170 to A.U. 21o
was left for Servius Tullius. But now, supposing that the two
reigns of Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius did not last
so long, all absurdity disappears, and the ancient unanimous
account that Tarquinius Superbus was a son of Tarquinius
Priscus is restored to its full riglit. AVe see then how the
greatest nonsense arises from chronological restorations; the
forgery is manifest.
Now although the other sources of the earliest history, the
ancient lays, were not falsified, they are nevertheless entirely
insulficieut. We have a parallel to this in our own lay of the
Nibelungen ; its authors have no intention to deceive ami do
not pretend to give an annali^tic history; historical persons
* T. Tiitius is said to have given him his tlaughtcr in niarriago, ami yet
Tatius dies in the fourth yeai" after the fouudation of Kome. — N.
b CHARACTER OP ETRUSCAN HISTORIES.
occur in it such as Theodoric, Attila, the Burgundians, and
yet no one portion of the whole poem belongs to history. In
like manner, history cannot claim Romulus and Xuma, they
belong to the sphere of the gods, Romulus as the son of jNIars,
and Xuma as the husband of Egeria ; Romulus is only a per-
sonification of Rome. Other poems of a similar kind contain
more of historical substance, such as the Spanish Romances of
the Cid; in this the fundamental features are indeed historical,
but they form only a line, whereas the substance as given in
the poem is a surface. It is the same with many portions of
Roman history, and whoever entirely rejects the early history
of Rome does not know what he is doing. Romulus and Xuma,
then, form the first saeculum, because they do not belong at all
to history; they form a saeculum by themselves, as it were a
totally diiFerent period ; and whatever ancient traditions were
found respecting the succeeding kings and their period (and
many such traditions were current) were inserted in the chrono-
logical outline. Any who may think this criticism dangerous,
would cease to do so, Avere they better acquainted with events
nearer our own time. It is well known that the middle-age
romances about Charlemagne and his Paladins are based upon
Latin chronicles ascribed to archbishop Turpinus; these we now
look upon as romance and allow them to stand by the side of
history; but who would believe that scarcely 150 years after
Charlemagne, in the reign of Otho the Great, when not even
the remotest idea of a crusade existed, the chronicle of Bene-
dictus of Soracte gives a detailed account of an expedition of
Charlemagne to Jerusalem, and without any suspicion of its
not being true. Even before the Carlo vingian race was extinct,
we find wholly fabulous features in the history of Charlemagne,
such as his journeys across the Alps, etc., related in the chro-
nicles with the greatest possible assurance. These we can now
refute, as we have contemporaneous annals and the biography
of Eginhard; the expedition to Jerusalem is disproved even
without these by Oriental annals. It is the same in Ireland,
for there too we find annals in which a series of kings is given,
and among them Xiall the Great, a contemporary it seems of
the emperor Theodosius; he conquered Britain, Gaul and Spain,
crossed the Alps and threatened the emperor in Rome. The
most positive evidence can be adduced against this entirely
THE EMPEROR CLAUDIUS. 7
fabulous account, for the autlientic liistory of that period is
generally known.*
We might with the same facility prove that the early his-
tory of Rome is not authentic, if we had earlier historical books
to correct the legends. But where are we to find them? The
Greeks did not come in contact with Rome till long afterwards,
and although they possessed information about the Romans at
an earlier period than is commonly supposed, they nevertheless
gave themselves no concern about them, just because they did
not come in contact with them. The case might be different
in regard to the Greeks of the south of Italy and the Siceliots,
but none of their writers have come down to us: neither Hero-
dotus nor Thucydides could make mention of the Romans.
But there still exists an isolated fragment of Etruscan history,
which gives us an opportunity of seeing the manner in which
the history of Rome was told among other nations. The em-
peror Claudius, who was so unfortunate in his early youth and
so ill used by his mother, and whose weak mind, although he
was possessed of many amiable qualities, was entirely misguided
by bad treatment, seems to have excited the sympathy of Livy,
who instructed and encouraged him in historiography. He
accordingly wrote several works in the Greek language,
Kap)(^t]SoviaKd in eight and TvppriviKa in twenty books, the loss
of which we have great reason to regret. Even Pliny does
not notice the last named work. But in the sixteenth century
there were found two tables, containing fragments of a speech
of the emperor Claudius, in which he proposes to the senate,
to grant the full franchise to the Lugduncnsian Gauls and to
admit them into the senate as had long been the case in the
provincia Romana. The inhabitants of Gaul were Roman citi-
zens and had Roman names, but they had not the right to be
admitted into the senate; and it was this right that the emperor
Claudius conferred upon the Lugduncnsian Gaids. Of the
several brass tables which contained the speech mentioned by
■• The old Ii"ish tradition, as far as I can ascertain, diflcrs somewhat from
the statement made in tlic text. It was not Niall tlie Great who advanced as
far as the Aljis, l)ut his successor Dathy, w!io was struck dead at the foot of the
Alps by a tiasli of lightning a.d. 427. Comp. Keating's General History of
Ireland, translated by Derniod U'Conor. Lond. 1723, foL p. 319; M'Derniot's
History of Ireland, Lonilon, 1820, 8vo. vol. i. p. 411. Tlic accounts of Roman
■wTiters on Ireland, ai-e collected in O'Conor's Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores,
V. i., Prolcgom. p. 1.— Ed.
8 SOURCES OF THE EARLIEST HISTORY.
Tacitus two still exist; they do not contain a continuous por-
tion of tlie speech unless a considerable piece is wanting at the
bottom of the first table. Previous to the French revolution,
they were kept in the town hall of Lyons, but whether they
are still there I cannot say.^ They give us an idea of Clau-
dius's stupidity and we must acknowledge that the ancients
did not wrong him in this respect. In this speech he says in
detail what Tacitus has compressed into a few words. " It
ought not to be objected," says the emperor, " that this is an
innovation, since iiniovations have been made ever since the
beginning of the state ; strangers have always been admitted,
as for example the Sabines of T. Tatius ; strangers have even
been made kings, to wit Numa, Tarquin the Etruscan, a de-
scendant from Greece, and Servius Tullius, who according to
our annals was a native of Corniculum , and according to those
of Etruria an Etrurian of the name ofMastarna, and a follower
of Cacles Vibenna. He migrated, settled on the Caelian hill,
which was thus called after his leader, and there called himself
Servius Tullius." This then is a direct proof of what the
Koman annals were in those days. For nothing that is related
of this Etruscan Mastarna can be applied to Servius Tullius,
the son of a female slave.
There is therefore no doubt that the earliest history of Eome
arose ovit of lays. Perizonius mentions similar instances among
other nations: even in the historical books of the Old Testa-
ment such lays are to be found ; in reference to the Romans he
quotes as a proof Cato's testimony, to which Cicero refers in
two passages: "Would," says Cicero, "that those lays were
extant, which Cato in his Origines states used many ages before
his own time to be sung at repasts by the guests in praise of
illustrious men." A third mention of them is found from Varro
in Nonius Marcellus to the effect that jmeri honesti sang at re-
pasts songs in praise of deceased great men, sometimes with
and sometimes without the accompaniment of the flute. Every
one must consider these testimonies to be valid. Among all
nations with whose early national literature we are acquainted,
we find either long historical poems of an epic character or
short ones in praise of individual men. Now previously to
making and proving the assertion, that fragments of both kinds
* They are printed in Lipsius' edition of Tacitus and in Gruter's Corpus
Jnscriptionum, Imt ai'c little read. — N.
SATURNIAN VERSE. 9
have come down to us in Eoman history, I must make some
remarks upon the oldest metre.
The Ancient Romans, before their adoption of Greek poetry,
used the Saturnian verse, of which Horace speaks;
Horridus ille dcfluxit numerus Satumius,
and wliich several ancient grammarians have explained. Atilius
Fortunatianus and others among them, being ignorant of its
real nature, confined their remarks to a couple of lines that
were extant, especially to the following:
Maliun dabunt Metelli Naevio poiitae,
in which according to the opinion of the time a hypercatalectic
senarius appears. Terentianus Maurus, who belongs to the
end of the third centiuy, speaks of it in treating of the Anacre-
ontic verse, because the first part of the Saturnian resembles it.
But the true Saturnian verse is quite different, as I intend
shortly to show in a sej^arate treatise. It is capable of a variety
of forms and is quite independent of Greek metres. The Latin
expression for rhythm, which was not applied to Greek metres
till a later time, is nimieri. The Greek metre is based upon
music and time, but the Eomans actually counted the syllables
and rarely if at all measured them ; a certain number of syl-
lables was necessary to constitute rhythm. Our forefathers too
had no idea of long or short syllables after the Greek fashion;
in the old hymns of the Latin Church likewise short syllables
are used as long and vice versa. Plautus and Terence in their
iambic and trochaic verses in reality observe the rhythm only
and not the time. The same is the case w^ith all Northern
nations. The prevailing character of the Saturnian verse is,
that it consists of a fixed number of feet of three syllables each.
The number of feet is generally four, and they are either
bacchics or cretics, alternating with spondees. Sometimes the
erotics predominate and sometimes the bacchics; when the
verses are kept pure the movement is very beautiful, but they
are generally so much mixed that it is dilHcult to discern them.
These verses, in use from the remotest times, are quite analo-
gous to the Persian, Arabic, the ancient German, Northern
and Anii'lo-Saxon verses, and in fact to all iu which alliteration
prevails. The old German verse is divided into two halves,
an alliteration occurs in the first half twice and in the second
10 THE NAENIAE
lialf once ; it lias four arses. The same fourfold rliytlim occura
in the old Saxon harmony of the gospels, in Otfrid and others,
but five or even six rhythms may occur; in the Persian we find
generally four feet of three syllables, in the Arabic frequently
the same, but often also feet of four syllables. The Spanish
coplas de arte major which were common previous to the
adoption of the Alexandrines, and which were introduced into
Flanders, also are of exactly the same kind. It is probable
that the same metre is found in the longer Provencal poems.
This ancient Roman metre occurs throughout in Roman poetry
down to the seventh century. I have collected a large number
of examples of it and discovered a chapter of an ancient gram-
marian with most beautiful fragments especially from Naevius.
I shall publish this important treatise on the Saturnian verse,
for the grammarian really understood its nature.^ In Plautus
it is developed with great beauty.
There were also smaller ancient poems in this metre. At
the funerals of Romans naeniae were sung with the accom-
paniment of the flute, and these were not melancholy and soft
dirges, but must have had the same character as the laudationes;
the dead had passed to their illustrious ancestors, their glory
was made use of as a show and as an encouragement, and for
this reason simple praise was bestowed upon them in these
naeniae. The words of Horace, absint inani funere naeniae, etc.,
refer, if songs were sung at all at funerals, to the lamentations
of later times; for the Romans originally were not tender-
hearted : they made use even of a dead man for the good of the
republic; from his grave he continued to call upon the living
to follow in his footsteps. Naeniae and laudationes, therefore,
were certainly quite plain and simple, according to the ancient
style in which periods were not j^et known, and bore no
^ The grammarian, whose fragment on the Satiirnian verse is here mentioned,
is Charisiiis. Niebnhr took a copy of it from a Xcapolitan manuscript in 1823,
and his copy has been entnisted to Prof. Lachmann of Berlin, who is preparing
its publication. Prof. Schneidewin of Giittingen publislicd it in 1841 in a pro-
gramme, "Flavii Sosipatri Cliarisii de versa Satm-iiio commentariolus ex codice
Neapolitano nunc primiuu editus," from a copy taken by O. ^Mullcr, and severely
criticised Niebuhr's expressions respecting the Saturnian verse; but a glance at
the fragment, as it is there printed, shews, that Mliller's copy is very imperfect,
and it would have been more becoming accurately to examine the copy taken
by Niebuhr, before criticising him in a manner, which does not indeed injure
the memory of Xiebuhr, but certainly does not place the modesty of Schneidewin
in the most Aivourablc light. — Ed.
AND LAUDATIONES. 11
resemblance to the X0704 errnd^Loi of Thvicydldes and tKe later
Greeks. Two poems evidently of this kind are still extant on
the tombs of the Scipios, which were discovered in 1 780 on
the Appian road ; the upper compartment, which contained the
sarcophagus of the yoimger Africanus and the statue ofEnnius,
had disappeared, but the lower one was worked into the rock
and was found filled with rubbish. The latter contained the
sarcophagus of L. Scipio Barbatus, who was consul in the year
A.U. 454. Persons had descended into this tomb from above
lonjr before 7, and had taken out one of the slabs, which is now
fixed in the wall of the palace Barberini, but it was forgotten
again/' These magnificent sarcophagi bear inscriptions in
verse, which are written like prose it is true, but the verses
are divided by lines ; on the sarcophagus of the son the verses
are even marked, and that they are verses may be seen from
the unequal length of the lines, for otherwise the Eomans always
wrote their lines to the end of the slab. These are quite plain
and simple verses but still there is rhythm in them —
Corneliu' Luciu' Scipio Barbatus,
Gnaivo prognatu', fortis vir sapiens que —
Consul, censor, aedilis, qui fuit apud vos, etc.
— These are certainly the naeniae which were sung at the time
and were afterwards inscribed on the tomb. The ancient songs
at repasts were for the most part just as simple.
Now these naeniae^ which together with the laudationes were
kept in the atrium, are sources of the earliest history. But
besides these there also existed longer epic poems among the
Komans no less than among other nations such as the Servians ;
the songs of the modern Greeks are of a purely lyrical character,
but those of the Servians are a combination of epic and lyric.
I think I have discovered in Livy a fragment of such an heroic
epic, on the fight of the Iloratii and Curiatii. Xow we cannot
indeed suppose that Livy saw these ancient epics and -wrote
his history from them, but he wrote in part directly and in part
indirectly through the medium of Varro, from the books of the
pontiffs and augurs, w^hich contained a great many fragments
of such ancient epics, some of which may have been as old,
^ In the year 1616.
« The bodies of the Cornelii down to the time of Sulla were not burned
according to the Pelasgian and Greek fashion, but were buried in coffins.— N.
12 FAMILY AND NATIONAL VANITY.
even as the time of the taking of Rome by the Gauls. In the
passage of Livy in which he relates the trial of Horatius, which
he took from those books, he speaks of a lex horrendi carminis;
the formulae of that time were called carmina and were in the
ancient metre. That Livy drew his materials from those books
either directly or indirectly becomes the more certain from
Cicero's statement, that the formula of the ^;rot;oc«/?o ad 'pojmlwn
was contained in the lihri augurales. The formula is — Duum-
viri perduellionem judicent, etc., in which the ancient metre is
still discernible.
I have elsewhere observed that Cicero's statement : lauda-
tionibus historia nostra facta est mendosior, is also acknowledged
by Livy: as every thing good may easily acquire a tendency
to evil, so also could the beauty of Eoman family pride dege-
nerate into falsehood, and there is no reason for disbelieving
the assertion.
After the first scanty records of the early times had for the
most part been destroyed in the Gallic conflagration, they were
restored according to certain schemes from the songs of the
vates; the poems became altered as they passed from mouth
to mouth, and they, combined with the laudationes, form the
groundwork of our history— the material which Fabius found
when he began to write.
If we look at the tenth book of Livy, we find in it a
disproportionate minuteness in his account of the campaigns
of Fabius Maximus liulllanus, and this minuteness arises from
family records; we may in fact point out not a few statements,
which cannot have had any other source but family vanity,
which went so far as to forge consulships and triumphs, as
Livy himself says.
Otlier forgeries again arose from national vanity, and these
occur everywhere in those parts of the history which relate to
any great calamity suliered by the Romans, especially the great
calamities of the early times, such as the war with Porsenna,
the sacking of Rome by the Gauls, and the defeat of Caudium,
the whole narratives of which are falsified. Others arose from
party spirit, which in primitive periods led to perpetual strife;
one party raised false accusations against the other, and these
were introduced into history; at other times attempts Avere
made to palliate and conceal moral and political crimes. The?
people are described as being the cause of the worst misfortunes
LEGEND OF AENEAS. 13
tLougK they were innocent and their opponents were the guilty
party; it was not the people but the curiae that condemned
Manlius to death, and it was the curiae that pronounced the
inglorious decision between the Ardeatans and Aricinians; nay
we may be convinced that it was the curiae too who compelled
Camillus^ to go into exile.
Such falsifications accumulate, become interwoven with
one another, and in the end produce a strange confusion. We
may collect the rich materials though they are widely scattered,
because party spirit prevented their being united, and by the
process of criticism we may discover the constitution and
character of the Roman nation, and in general outlines give
their history down to the time at which we have the contem-
porary records of the Greeks, that is to the war with Pyrrhus
and the first Pimic war. j\Iuch Avill indeed remain obscure in
our investigations, but we can accurately distinguish where
this must be so and where not.
Roman History goes back to Latium and through Latium
to Troy. Since the question was raised by Dion Chrysostomus
whether Troy ever really existed, an immense deal has been
written upon it, and also on the question whether Aeneas ever
came to Italy. The treatise by Theodore Ryckius^" upon this
subject is very well known; he regards the arrival of Aeneas
as an historical fact in opposition to Bochart, who was one of
the last ingenious philologers of France", and whose Intellect
was at all events superior to that of Ryckius. Bochart's
hypothesis concerning the influence of the Phoenicians is cer-
tainly carried too far. Now, however, the question would be
put in a totally difTerent manner, we should ask, Plas the legend
of the arrival of the Trojans on this coast any historical ground?
Further, Did the legend originate with the Greeks and come
over to Italy, or is it of native Italian growth, that is to say,
is it one which we at least cannot trace to any Greek sources ?
If the latter be the case, there must be some truth at the bottom
of it, and the less we take these ancient traditions literally, the
more probability we find in them.
There existed unquestionably in the earliest times of Greece,
' Li\7, iii. 71, 72.
"> Thcod. Ryckii l)if;s. de Primift lUiliae Colonis ct Acnea in Luc. Ilolstcnii
Notae et Caxtigationes in Stepli. Hi/zantiiim. Lugd. Bat. 1684, fol.
" Siilmasius was fax less clear-headed than he.— N.
14 THE PELASGIANS.
two nations wlio were very nearly akin to eacli other and yet
were so different that the one did not even understand the
language of the other, as Herodotus distinctly says : the lan-
guage of the one when compared with that of the other was
regarded as barbarous, and yet from another point of view they
may be looked upon as very kindred languages. Several
living languages, even now, stand in a similar relation to one
another^ such as the Polish and Bohemian, the Italian and
Spanish, and if we do not look at the relationship quite so closely,
the Polish and Lithuanian. The last two languages differ
from each other immensely, but yet have a characteristic re-
semblance; the grammar of both is based upon the same prin-
ciples: they have the same peculiarities, their numerals are
almost the same and a great number of words are common to
both. These languages therefore are sister languages and yet a
Pole does not understand a Lithuanian. Now this is the man-
ner in which we solve the question so often raised respecting
the difference or identity of the Greeks and Pelasgians. When
Herodotus tells us that they were different, we must indeed
believe him, but on the other hand he joins the Hellenes and
Pelasgians together, consequently there can have been no radi-
cal difference between the two nations.
In the earliest times, when the history of Greece is yet
wrapt up for us in impenetrable mystery, the greater part of
Italy, perhaps the whole of the eastern coast of the Adriatic,
Epirus, Macedonia^*^, the southern coast of Thrace with the
peninsulas of Macedonia, the islands of the Aegean as well as
the coasts of Asia Minor as far as the Bosporus were inhabited
by Pelasgians." The Trojans also must be regarded as Pelas-
gians; that they were not barbarians is confirmed by the
unanimous opinion of all the Greeks and may be seen from
Homer; they inhabit a Pelasgian country but their names are
Greek. They are sometimes spoken of as more closely con-
nected with the Arcadians,, who were another essentially Pelas-
gic race, sometimes with the Epirots and sometimes with the
Thessalians; Aeneas in one tradition migrates to Arcadia
and there dies, and in another he goes to Epirus where Helle-
nus is settled. Thus, in Pindar's poem on Cyrene, we find
" The original inh;ibitants of jNIaccdonia Avcrc neither lilyrians nor Tliracians,
but Pelasgians. Comp. C. O. Miilicr's Treatise on Macedonia, appended to
"Vol. I. of the Hist, and Ant. of tlic Doric Race, p. 467, etc.
'^ Even Aeschylus peoples all Greece with Pelasgians. — N.
SAMOTIUIACE — THE SICULI. 15
Arlstaeus, a Pelasgian hero from Arcadia, along with the
Antenoridae. The connection between the Pelasgians and
Trojans goes very far back, for Samothrace especially is the
metropolis of Ilium; Dardanus comes from Arcadia, but passes
through Samothrace, and, being married to Chryse, he proceeds
thence to Troas. The Samothracians, according to one gram-
marian, were a Roman people, that is, they were recognised as
the brothers of the Romans, namely of the Troico-Tyrrhenian
Pelasgians. This connection has no other foundation than the
kindred nature of the Tyrrhenians, Trojans, and Samothra-
cians. Some accounts state that Dardanus went from Tyr-
rhenia to Troas, others that the Trojans went to Tyrrhenia.
The temple and mysteries of Samothrace formed a point of
union for many men from all countries ^^: for a great portion
of the world at that time, the temple of Samothrace was like
the Caaba of Mecca, the tomb of the prophet at Medina, or
the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem. Samothrace and Dodona
were to the Pelasgian nations what perhaps Delj)hi and Delos
were to the Hellenic world. Tiie distance of a great number
of kindred tribes from those central points, was in this instance
of no greater consequence than in the case of the I\Iahomme-
dans, who are not prevented by distance from going as pilgrims
to the sacred spot.
This race of the Pelaso-ians, which we can trace as far as
Liguria, and which also inhabited at least the coasts of Corsica
and Sardinia, disappears in the historical times as a body of
nations: it consisted originally of a number of tribes with
different names, of which afterwards we find only remnants
and isolated tribes. A very extensive name for that part of
the race which inhabited Epirus and the southern part of
modern Italy, at least as far as Latium and the coast of the
Adriatic, was Siculi, also Vituli, A'itelli, Yitali Itali; from
these Italy derives its name.^^ Notwithstanding the wide
extent of this Siculian or Italian name, it seems that in the
earliest times Italy did not, as now, denote the country as flir
as the Alps; it is indeed possible that the changes which took
'■' Wc may certainly look upon this as an established fiact, althoii^h the in-
vestigations conecvning the mysteries themselves will never yield any positive
results. — N.
'^ As K (or C) and T arc identical, and oidy dialectically different, so tlie S is
changed into the digamma or Y, which, again, is often lost, especially at the
beginning of words.— N.
16 THE OENOTRIANS AND PEUCETIAXS.
place in consequence of tlie migration of the northern tribes se-
parated the maritime countries of Etruria from Italy and confined
the nameof Italy to the country south of the Tiber or even south of
Latium. This, however, is only a conjecture; but it is certain
that at one time Italy was bounded in the north by a line from the
Garganus in the east to Terracina in the west, and that the name,
after having been more limited, was again, after the time of Alex-
ander the Great and previously to the extension of the dominion
of Rome, used in its former and wider extent. It seems to be this
earlier Italy that F liny means, when he says it is querno folio
similis}^ This statement he undoubtedly took from Timaeus,with
whom also originated the comparison of Sardinia to a sandal or a
foot-mark. It quite escaped Pliny's attention that Italy in his
time could not be described in any such way ; and this is a
very characteristic instance of the hasty and thoughtless
manner in which he wrote.
In the south of Italy the earliest inhabitants were also
called Oenotri and Peucetii, in the north undoubtedly Libur-
nians and on the coast of Latium TyiThenians.
Whether the settlements on the coast north of the Tiber
were remnants of a people who had been driven back, or
whether they were only colonies, it is no longer possible for us
to decide. But there appear in central Italy besides these
tribes, which were analogous to the Greeks, nations of a different
kind which overwhelmed the former. These migrations seem
to have been similar to those met with in modern history,
where one nation has pushed forward another. The people
who threw themselves at the same time upon the Siculi in
Latium and upon the Itali in the south of Italy, and, having
partly expelled and partly subdued them, became assimilated to
them, are the Opici, a transition people, who in reality existed as
Opici in a few places only, but, being again amalgamated with
other subdued people, they produced new forms. They appear
under various names, which, however, have the same radical
syllable. Thus we find them under the name of Apuli , the termina-
tions -icus and -ulus being equivalent : hence the Italian population
'® This is a remarkable example of the manner in which Pliny wrote; he
sometimes speak in his own name and sometimes gives extracts, but nnfortu-
nately his historical extracts arc made with as little thonght as those relating to
natural history, which arc full of misapprehensions of Aristotle and Theophras-
tus.— N,
I
OnCANS AND UilBRIANS. 17
ceases in Apulia, extending apparently as far as Messapia,
where a portion of the Itali maintained themselves in an iso-
lated position. They further existed in the countries after-
wards called Samnium, Campania, and, under the name of
Volscians and Aequians, on the borders of Latium.
The Opicans again were pressed forward by the Sabines
(Sabellians) who called themselves autochthons, and who
traced their origin to the highest mountains of the Abruzzo,
near Majella and Gran Sasso d^Italia. Cato somewhat
strangely supposes these to have come from the small dis-
trict of Amiternum. Xow whether the Sabellians and Opicans
diftered from each other, as, for example, the Gauls and Li-
gurians did, or even in a less degree, as the Gauls and Cymri;
or whether they belonged to the same stock and were sepa-
rated from each other only politically, are questions which we
cannot solve. The ancients did not know this, nor did they
pay miich attention to it. If we obstinately determine to see
where no historical light is to be obtained, the intellectual eye
is injured as is the physical, when it violently exerts itself in
the dark. Varro indeed distinguishes between the Sabine and
Oscan languages, but he knew so little of the ancient languages,
in the sense in which \\\ v. Humboldt knows them, that little
reliance can be placed on his statements respecting the affinity
of languages. According to general analogy, I believe that
there was a migration of nations in different directions, by the
first impulse of which the Sabines may have been driven from
their northern habitations; but this is a mere conjecture.
The Umbrians may possibly have belonged to the same stock
as the Opicans. I should not like to attribute too much im-
portance to the resemblance of their names, for nations that
are nearest akin to one another often have very diifcrent names,
and widely different nations frequently have similar ones.
Thus the Getae and the Goths were for a long time errone-
ously looked upon as the same people ; and fifty years ago it
was the general opinion in Ireland and Scotland that the Fir-
Bolgs^^ spoken of in the poems of Ossian were the ancient
Belgians. But this is not correct ; they were, as a very well
informed Englishman wrote to me, a Danish colony. "We must
" The Fir-Bolgs belong to the bardic history of Irelaiul, which describes them
as the tliird immigration into Irehmd ; the Scots found them in Ireland governed
by kings ; to them is ascribed the building of the Cyclopian walls in Ireland. — Ei\
VOL. I. C
18 SICULIANS IN ITALY.
be greatly on our guard against the miserable desire to construe
the history of nations from their names, a desire which has
given rise to so many hypotheses and fancies. Much may be
learnt from the study of names indeed, but' what in some cases
is correct ceases to be true in others, and becomes a source of
error and fanciful theories which we must shun as vermin and
serpents. If I had not other evidence than the mere names, I
should hesitate to declare the Opicans and Umbrians identical.
But Philistus called tlie people who conquered the Siculians in
Latium Ombricans, and moreover the affinity of their languages
may be distinctly perceived from the remnants which have
come down to us.
These changes of nations, in which the earliest inhabitants
were driven out by one tribe and this again by another, are
the causes which render the history of the early Italian nations
so indescribably obscure and difficult for us, that, even where
we ourselves have a clear view, the misconceptions in our
authorities still maintain their ground, and ever and anon cause
fresh discussions. A solution of these difficulties, free from all
objections, is utterly impossible. He who is engaged in such
investigations must often be satisfied with evidence, which has
the appearance of truth, but he ought to be able to shew how
the misconceptions arose.
LECTURE II.
At a period which we cannot chronologically define, there
existed a popvdation of Siculians in the country afterwards
called Latium, which may however have borne this name from
the earliest times. The remembrance of this population was
preserved at Tibur, part of which town was, according to Cato,
called Siculio.^ Elsewhere also in ancient authors, we find an
immense number of statements which place the existence of
this people beyond all doubt. It is found under the same name
" In the printed collections of the fi-agments of Cato, I do not find this state-
ment ; whence I suppose that Cato is here confounded with Dionysiuswho(i.l 6)
has the statement in question. — Ed.
THE LATINS. 19
in southern Italy, and also in tlie island wliich to tliis day is
named after them. According to one tradition, Sicelus went
from Latium to the Oenotrians; according to another, the
Siculians under different names were driven from their ancient
habitations by the Opicans or Umbrians, and migrated to the
island of Sicily, This migration only shews the combinations
of those who wish to prove the contemporaneous existence of
the same people in Latium and in Sicily. The migration is pos-
sible indeed, but it is also possible that it took place in quite a
different direction. It is certain that the Siculians existed in
the south of Italy in Homer's time, of which we find evidence
in a passage from ]\Inaseas, a pupil of Aristarchiis, a learned
grammarian and historian quoted by the Scholiast on the
Odyssey. He says also, that Echetus was prince of the Siceli
in Epirus, so that he recognises this name even in those parts ;
we see from his explanation, that when the poet of the Odyssey
speaks of the Siceli, he does not mean the inhabitants of Sicily,
an island scarcely known to him, but the inhabitants of the
south of Italy or the Pelasgians of Epirus.
The Siculi are the same as those whom Cato calls Abori-
gines. This name is explained by yevdpxai, that is ancestors ;
or by Aberrigines, that is, icandering people ; but it more pro-
bably signifies the people that have been from the beginning
(ab origine). The nominative singular according to the Latin
idiom must have been Aboriginus. There was a tradition that
Latium was originally inhabited by autochthons, but Cato
and C. Sempronius- said, that the Aborigines had come from
Achaia, that is from the Peloponnesus, the whole of which
was then called Achaia by the Romans. Others apply the epi-
thet Argive to the particular places which were otherwise
called Siculian, and Cato had done so even in the case of Tibur.
Argos and Larissa are Pelasgian names occurring wherever
Pelasgians are found, Argos probably signifying a toii-n, and
Larissa a citadel or arx. So long as the Peloponnesus was Pe-
lasgian it was called Argos, just as Thessaly and, in this sense,
the Arglves are Pelasgians ; the 'Apyelot IleXaa-jol in ancient
tragedy arc always mentioned together, the one being probably
the wider and the other the more limited name.
Hesiod says of Latinus, Traai Tvp'pi^volaiv ciyaKXeiTolatv
' Probably C. Sempronius Tuditanus, the same whom Dionysius, i. 11, calls
KoyidTarov rwv 'Pa'/io(o>v avyypa<pi(iiv. — Ed.
c2
20 POLARITY OF TRADITIONS.
dvdaaei. All we know about the Latins is the fact that they
possessed a number of towns from Tibur to the river Tiber:
how far they extended in the earliest times towards the Liris
is uncertain. Cato, quoted by Priscian, states that the plain of
the Volscians formerly belonged to the Aborigines; and it is
certain that all the towns along the coast, such as Antium,
Circeii and others, were at an early period Tyrrhenian. At
that time, accordingly, the name Latium was of very wide ex-
tent, and even immediately after the time of the Roman kings
it extended as far as Campania, but was afterwards restricted
by the great migrations which took place after the expulsion
of the kings. Hesiod of course refers to an earlier period. In
the treaty of Rome with Carthage the names Latium and
Latins extend along the coast beyond Terracina, and probably
as far as Cumae.
The Pelasgian inhabitants of the whole of the western coast
of Italy were called by the Greeks Tyrrhenians, and by the
Latins Turini, Tusci, that is, Tusici from Tusus or Turus; for*
is used in the early language instead of r, as in Fusius for
Fuj'ius.
We must keep in mind that the Pelasgians and Aborigines
were one and the same people. If we examine the tradition^,
of nations we frequently find that the same events are related
in various and entirely opposite ways. The story of a Jew
taking merciless vengeance on a Christian, such as we read of
in " The Merchant of Yenice", is foimd completely reversed
in a Roman tale written shortly before Shakespeare's time; in
this the Christian is represented as wishing to cut a piece of
flesh out of the Jew's body. The migrations of the Goths
proceed, according to some, from Scandinavia to the south, and
according to others from the south to Scandinavia. Wittekind
states that the Saxons came from Britain to Germany, while
the common tradition describes them as having been invited
fi'om Germany to Britain. The Pelasgians about Mount
Hymettus near Athens are said to have migrated from Tyr-
rhenia to Athens, and thence to Lemnos, while in another
tradition the Tyrrhenians proceed from the INIaeonian coast to
Italy. In like manner, Cyrene, according to one tradition,
received a colony from Thera ; but according to another, Tliera
arose out of a clod of earth from Libya. In the earlier tradi-
tions, the Planetae are at the entrance of the Euxine, and the
CASCANS. 21
ship Argo on its voyage to Colchis sailed between them : in
the later traditions, they appear in the Western sea and are an
obstacle to the Argo on her return. The same contradiction
appears in the case of the Aborigines. Dionysius in defiance
of etymology applies this name to the people, who coming from
the interior overpowered the ancient inhabitants. Varro did
just the same: he is even worse than Pliny; he knows that the
Latins are a combination of two nations, but he confounds
every thing, representing the Aborigines as the conquering
and the Siculians as the conquered people.^ Following the
example of Hellanicus he proceeds to trace the Aborigines to
Thessaly, but then makes them migrate from the Upper Anio
as far as the Upper Abruzzo, whither they are pushed by the
Sabines. This tradition has a local and probable character,
for in that district there existed a number of small townships ;
large towns on the other hand, such as we find in Etruria, are
always a proof of immigration^ the immigrating people usually
settling together in considerable numbers. Dionysius must be
excused for his error, since he trusted to the authority of Varro,
who alone is responsible for the blunder of confounding the
conquering with the conquered people.
One of the conquering tribes probably bore the name of
Casci. Whether this was one of the names borne by the Tyr-
rhenians, Latins or Siculians, or whether the Casci were foreign
immigrants, cannot be determined with certainty, though the
latter is more probable. The name Casci has been preserved
by Servius from Saufeius, a grammarian who seems to belong
to the first century of the Christian era. They also occur under
the name of Sacrani, from which Varro and Dionysius infer that
they were a lepa V€6r7)<;. A tribe of the people who, under the
names of Opicans, Oscans and Umbrians, inhabited the interior
of Italy, or, more probably, had been pushed forward from the
north and was pressed between the ancient Pelasgian places,
settled in the Apennines about lake Fucinus (now Celano)
towards Reate.
Their capital was called Llsta, and they extended to the
* Varro had read immeiisi.'ly, Init he oiiglit not to be called a learned man,
on account of his confusion. A\nien I, as a young man, began these investiga-
tions, I could not sec my way clearly in these matters though in the nu\iu jioints
I saw correctly, I trusted too much to Varro's authority, and owing to his
confusion of names I did not gain a clear insight till when I prepai'cd a new
edition of my work. — N.
22 SACRANI. — PRISCI LATINI.
boundaries of the Sicvilians who dwelt above Tibur towards the
inland districts. There was a tradition that in their war with
the Sabines, who had already taken Reate from them, and
continued to push them onward, they had vowed a ver sacrum.
This custom, observed by the Italian nations in times of mis-
fortune, was preserved among the Romans also : a vow was made
to dedicate to the gods all the cattle and in general every thing
which the next spring might produce, and to send out as
colonists the male children who were born in that season ; the
vegetable produce was either offered as a sacrifice or its value
in money. Having made this vow, the Sacrani marched to-
wards Latium and subdued the Siculians. In Latium they
settled among the ancient inhabitants, and became united with
them into one people bearing the name Prisci Latijii, for the
Casci must also have been called Prisci^ Prisci Latini is the
same as Prisci et Latini, for the Latin language always expresses
two ideas which are inseparably connected by the simple juxta-
position of the two words, mortar not being used by the ancient
Romans in their language any more than in their architectural
works. This has been clearly demonstrated by Brissonius who
has also established the foxmu\-d jjopulus Romanus Quirites; bvit
he goes too far in asserting that the Romans never said populus
Romanus Quiritium, a position which has been justly contro-
verted by J. Fr. Gronovius. In like manner we must explain
patres conscripti as qui patres quique conscrijiti sunt, and also the
legal formulae, locati conducti, emti venditi, and others. Priscus
and Cascus afterwards signified venj ancient, old fashioned;
whence the phrases, casce loqui, vocahula casca. These
conquerors spoke Oscan, and from the combination of their
languase with that of the Pelasgo-Sicvdians there arose that
curious mixture which we call Latin, of which the grammar,
and still more the etymology, contains so important a Greek
element, which C. 0. Mliller has at my suggestion so admirably
investigated in the first volume of his Etruscans. The primitive
Oscan language is still preserved in a few ancient monuments;
a few inscriptions in it were found at Pompeii and Hercu-
* It would be absurd to take Prisci Latini in Li^y to mean ancient Latins;
he took tlie formula of the declaration of war by the Fetiales, in wliich the
expression first occur"!, from the ritual books; it refers to the time of Ancus
Martins ; and before the time of Tarquinius Superbus there were no Latin colonies
at all as distinguished from the rest of the Latins. — N,
TRADITIONS ABOUT TROY. 23
lanum ; the table of Bantia (Oppido) is perfectly intelligible.
Of the two elements of the Latin language, the Greek and the
not- Greek, the latter answers to the Oscan language. All
words relating to agriculture, domestic animals, produce of the
field, and the like, are Greek or akin to Greek. We see then
a conquered agricultural people, and a conquering one comincr
from the mountains, which did not pursue agriculture.
Henceforth we lose all traces of the original tradition which
is supplanted by the story of the Trojan immigration. I shall
not here enter into any detail, but refer you to the minute
investigations contained in my history of Eome; the result of
which is that this last-named story has no authenticity what-
ever, but is only a later embellishment to express the relation
existing between the Trojans as Pelasgiaus, and the nations of
Italy which belonged to the same stock. The tradition of a
Trojan colony occurs in many parts of Italy, and the fact of
its having become more firmly established in regard to Latium
is purely accidental; it was kept up and nourished by the
diffusion of Greek poems which was far more extensive than
Ave commonly imagine.
The story of the Trojan settlement is comparatively ancient
among the Romans; even Xaevius, in his poem on the Pimic
war, gave a very minute account of it ; the Ilians established
their claims among the Eomans during the wars against Se-
leucus Callinicus, We could not take as our guide a person
who would treat seriously the accounts of the foundation of
Rome by Aeneas; some particular points in them are of a
really national character, but the period of time between the
events and their recorders is too great. Naevius wrote about
950 or 980 years after the time commonly assigned to the
destruction of Troy. It is little known how much Vii'gil altered
the ancient tradition of the settlement of Aeneas in Latium —
as a poet he had a perfect right to do so — for its ancient form
was rough and harsh, as Latinus was said to have fiillen in the
war against Aeneas, and Lavinia who was first betrothed to
Aeneas and afterwards refused him, became a prisoner of war.
The earliest tradition, moreover, represented the settlement as
very small, for, according to Xaevius, Aeneas arrived with only
one ship, and the territory assigned to him consisted, as Cato
stated, of no more than 700 jur/era. Supposing this to be true,
how is it possible that a recollection of it should have been pre-
served for upwards of 900 years?
24 ALBAN CHRONOLOGY.
The original tradition is, that Aeneas at first for three years
dwelt in a small town of the name of Troy; he is then said to
have gone further inland and to have founded Lavinium ; thirty
years after this, Alba was founded, and 300 years after Alba
the foundation of Kome was laid. This regular progression of
numbers shews that the field is not historical, and there seems
to be no doubt that the duration of Rome was fixed at 3000
years. There are in these traditions two different numerical
systems, the Etruscan, with a saeculum of 110 years, and the
Greek or Tyrrhenian in which the saeculum consisted of thirty
years. This number thirty was at all times of great importance,
because the period of the revolution of Saturn was then, as
Servius remarks, believed to be completed in thirty years.
Thirty ordinary years formed with the Greeks one Saturnian,
and 100 Saturnian years constituted one great year. With this
are connected the progressive numbers fi:om the foundation of
Lavinium to the building of Rome. The earliest history of
Alba is worth nothing, as has been shewn by the acute Dod-
well^ ; who elsewhere too often spoiled by his subtleties that
which he had well begun. The chronology of the Alban kings,
for example, in Dionyslus is nothing but folly and falsehood,
and their names are huddled together in every possible manner.
This forgery, as we learn from Servius, was made at a late
period by a freedman of Sulla, L. Cornelius Alexander of Mi-
letus, who quickly became popular at a time when people
delighted in having the history of a period of which nothing
could be known.
Alba on the Alban lake is, in my opinion, the capital of the
ruling conquerors; it is not owing to mere chance that it bears
the same name as the town on lake Fucinus whence the Sacrani
had come. When they were obliged to give up their country
to the Sabincs, they founded a new Alba on a lake, just as the
Carthaginians built a new Carthage, the IMilesians a new M'l-
letus on the Black Sea, and as the English have so often done
in the new world. This Alba Longa then was the seat of the
Casci or Sacrani, and the earlier Latin towns within its terri-
tory probably experienced a twofold fiite; some may have
received a part of their population from the immigrants, and
others may have been reduced to a state of dependence without
receiving colonists. We have a tradition that these Latin
towns were thirty In number and that all were colonies of
* De Cyclis, diss. x.
ALBA LONGA. 25
Alba, but this is opposed to another statement which declares
all of them to have been originally Argive towns. Both may
perhaps be maintained, if we suppose that an a7roBaa/x6<; of the
ruling people settled in each of the towns. This tradition as
it stands is founded upon a misunderstanding : Alba had thirty
dcmi, which as perioeci belonged to it, and they are the populi
Albenses which I have discovered in Pliny. By this discovery
their relation has become clear to me, and I have no doubt
that the relation in which Alba stood to these Albensian towns
was the same as that in which the populus of Rome stood to
the plebs, and afterwards Rome to Latium. Previously to its
destruction. Alba had no doubt the sovereignty of Latium, as
Rome had afterwards. Alba therefore was surrounded by
thirty populi Albenses, part of which were probably Alban
colonies, and all of which constituted the state of Alba; and
besides them there was a number of towns of the Prisci Latini,
which were dependent upon Alba, whatever their condition
may have been in the earliest times.
LECTURE IIL
I BELIEVE that few persons, when Alba is mentioned, can get
rid of the idea, to which I too adhered for a long time, that
the history of Alba is lost to such an extent, that we can speak
of it only in reference to the Trojan time and the preceding
period, as if all the statements made concerning it by the
Romans were based upon fancy and error; and that accord-
ingly it must be effaced from the pages of history altogether.
It is true that what we read concerning the fovuidation of Alba
by Ascanius, and the wonderful signs accompanying it, as well
as the whole series of the Alban kings with the years of their
reigns, the story of Numitor and Amulius and the story of the
destruction of the city, do not belong to history ; but the his-
torical existence of Alba is not at all doubtful on that account,
nor have the ancients ever doubted it. The Sacra Albana and
the Albani tumuli atque luci, which existed as late as the time
of Cicero, are proofs of its early existence; ruins indeed no
26 LATIN TOWNS.
longer exist, but the situation of the city in the valley of
Grotta Ferrata may still be recognised. Between the lake and
the long chain of hills near the monastery of Palazzuolo one
still sees the rock cut steep down towards the lake, evidently
the work of man, which rendered it impossible to attack the
city on that side; the summit on the other side formed the arx.
That the Albans were in possession of the sovereignty of Latium
is a tradition which we may believe to be founded on good
authority, as it is traced to Cincius.^ Afterwards the Latins
became the masters of the district and temple of Jupiter.
Further, the statement that Alba shared the flesh of the victim
on the Alban mount with the thirty towns, and that after the
fall of Alba the Latins chose their own magistrates, are glimpses
of real history. The ancient tunnel made for discharging the
water of the Alban lake still exists, and through its vault a
canal was made called Fossa Cluilia : this vault which is still
visible is a work of earlier construction than any Roman one.
But all that can be said of Alba and the Latins at that time is,
that Alba was the capital, exercising the sovereignty over
Latium; that its temple of Jupiter was the rallying point of
the people who were governed by it; and that the gens Silvia
was the ruling clan.
It cannot be doubted that the number of Latin towns was
actually thirty, just that of the Albensian demi; this number
afterwards occurs again in the later thirty Latin towns and in
the thirty Roman tribes, and it is moreover indicated by the
story of the foundation of Lavinium by thirty families, in
which we may recognise the union of the two tribes.^ The
statement that Lavinium was a Trojan colony and was after-
wards abandoned but restored by Alba, and further that the
sanctuary could not be transferred from it to Alba, is only an
accommodation to the Trojan and native tradition, however
much it may bear the appearance of antiquity. For Lavinium
is nothing else than a general name for Latium just as Panionium
is for Ionia, Latiniis, Lavinus^ and Lavicus being one and the
same name, as is recognised even by Servius. Lavinium was
the central point of the Prisci Latini, and there is no doubt
that in the early period before Alba rnled over Lavinium,
worship was offered mutually at Alba and at Lavinium, as was
' Albanos rerum potitos usque ad Tullum. Festus, s. v. prator.
» Horn. Hint. i. p. 201, fol.
TUENUS. — LAVINIA. 27
afterwards the case at Kome in the temple of Diana on the
Aventine, and at the festivals of the Romans and Latins on
the Alban mount.
The personages of the Trojan legend therefore present them-
selves to us in the following light. Turnus is nothing else
but Turinus, in Dionysius Tvpp7]v6<;; Lavinia, the fair maiden,
is the name of the Latin people, which may perhaps be so dis-
tinguished that the inhabitants of the coast were called Tyr-
rhenians, and those further inland Latins. Since, after the
battle of lake Regillus, the Latins are mentioned in the treaty
with Rome as forming thirty towns, there can be no doubt
that the towns, over which Alba had the supremacy in the
earliest times, were likewise thirty in number ; but the confed-
eracy did not at all times contain the same towns, as some may
afterwards have perished and others may have been added. In
such political developments, there is at work an instinctive
tendency to fill up that which has become vacant ; and this
instinct acts as long as people proceed unconsciously according
to the ancient forms and not in accordance with actual
wants. Such also was the case in the twelve Achaean towns
and in the seven Frisian maritime communities; for as
soon as one disappeared, another dividing itself into two,
supplied its place. Wherever there is a fixed number,
it is kept up, even when one part dies away, and it ever con-
tinues to be renewed. We may add that the state of the
Latins lost in the West, but gained in the East. We must
therefore, I repeat it, conceive on the one hand Alba with
its thirty demi, and on the other the thirty Latin towns, the
latter at first forming a state allied with Alba, and at a later
time under its supremacy.
According to an important statement of Cato preserved in
Dionysius, the ancient towns of the Aborigines were small
places scattered over the mountains. One town of this kind
was situated on the Palatine hill, and bore the name of Roma,
which is most certainly Greek. Not far from it there occur
several other places with Greek names, such as Pyrgi and
Alsium ; for the people inhabiting those districts were closely
akin to the Greeks ; and it is by no means an erroneous con-
jecture, that Terraclna was formerly called Tpa-)(€ivi'], or the
" rough place on a rock;" Formiae must be connected with
opfMo<i, "a road-stead" or "place for casting anchor." As
28 ROMULUS, HIS DESCENT.
certain asPyrgi signifies "towers," so certainly does i?o»20 signify
" strength ^" and I believe that those are quite right who con-
sider that the name Eoma in this sense is not accidental.
This Eoma is described as a Pelasgian place in which Evander,
the introducer of scientific culture resided. According to tra-
dition, the first foundation of civilisation was laid by Saturn,
in the golden age of mankind. The tradition in Virgil, who
was extremely learned in matters of antiquity, that the first
men were created out of trees must be taken quite literally*;
for as in Greece the fMvpfir]Ke<i were metamorphosed into the
Myrmidons, and the stones thrown by DeucaHon and Pyrrha
into men and women, so in Italy trees, by some divine power,
were changed into human beings. These beings, at first only
half human, gradually acquired a civilisation which they owed
to Saturn; but the real intellectual culture was traced to
Evander, who must not be regarded as a person who had come
from Arcadia, but as the good man, as the teacher of the alpha-
bet and of mental culture, which man gradually works out for
himself.
The Eomans clung to the conviction that Eomulus, the
founder of Eome, was the son of a virgin by a god, that his
life was marvellously preserved, that he was saved from the
floods of the river and was reared by a she-wolf. That this
poetry is very ancient, cannot be doubted ; but did the legend
at all times describe Eomulus as the son of Eea Silvia or Ilia?
Perizonius was the first who remarked against Ej^ckius, that
Eea Ilia never occurs together, and that Eea Silvia was a
daughter of Numitor, while Ilia is called a daughter of Aeneas.
He is perfectly right: Naevius and Ennius called Eomulus a
son of Ilia, the daughter of Aeneas, as is attested by Servius
on Virgil and Porphyrio on Horace^; but it cannot be hence
' It is well known that there is in Stobaeus (vii. 13) a poem upon Rome,
which is ascribed to Erinna. But as Erinna composed her poems at a time
when Rome cannot be supposed to have been reno-«Tied in Aeolia, commentators
have imagined the poem to be a hymn on Strength. But Strength cannot be
called a daughter of Ares; Strength might rather be said to be his mother. The
poem belongs to a much later date, and proceeding on this supposition it may
perh.ips be possililc for some one to discover the real name of the author. It
certainly belongs to the period subsequent to the Hannibalian war, and was
perhaps not written till the time of the emperors; but to me it seems most pro-
bable that the author was a contemporary of Sulla. — N.
* Gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata. Virgil, Aen. viii, 315.
* Carm. i. 2.
REA SILVIA. 29
inferred, that tliis was the national opinion of the Romans
themselves, for the poets who were familiar with the Greeks,
might accommodate their stories to Greek poems. The ancient
Eomans, on the other hand, could not possibly look upon the
mother of the founder of their city as a daughter of Aeneas,
who was believed to have lived 333 or 360 years earlier.
Dionysius says that his account, which is that of Fabius, occur-
red in the sacred songs, and it is in itself perfectly consistent.
Fabius cannot have taken it, as Plutarch asserts, from Diodes,
a miserable unknown Greek author; the statue of the she-
wolf was erected in the year A. U. 457, long before Diodes
wrote, and at least a hundred years before Fabius. This tra-
dition therefore is certainly the more ancient Roman one ; and
it puts Rome in connection with Alba. A monument has
lately been discovered at Bovillae : it is an altar which the
Gentiles Julii erected lege Albana, and therefore expresses a
relio-ious relation of a Roman f?ens to Alba. The connetion
of the two towns continues down to the founder of Rome;
and the well known tradition, with its ancient poetical details,
many of which Livy and Dionysius omitted from their histories
lest they should seem to deal too much in the marvellous, runs
as follows.
Numitor and Amulius were contending for the throne of
Alba.^ Amulius took possession of the throne, and made Rea
Silvia, the daughter of Xumitor, a vestal virgin, in order that
the Silvian house might become extinct. This part of the story
was composed without any insight into political lawSj for a
daughter could not have transmitted any gentilician rights.
The name Rea Silvia is ancient, but Rea is only a surname :
rea femmina often occurs in Boccaccio, and is used to this day
in Tuscany to designate a woman whose repiitation is blighted:
a priestess Rea is described by Virgil as having been over-
powered by Hercules. While Rea was fetching water in a
grove for a sacrifice the sun became eclipsed, and she took
refuge from a wolf in a cave where she was overpowered by
Mars. When she was delivered, the sun was again eclipsed
and the statue of Yesta covered its eyes. Livy has here
abandoned the marvellous. The tyrant threw Rea with her
* Numitor is a praenomen, Imt the name Amulius docs not shew that he
belonged to the gens Silvia: I therefore doubt whctlicr tlie ancient tradition
represented them as brothers. — N.
30 ROMULUS AND REMUS.
infcints into the river Anio : she lost her life in the waves, but
the god of the river took her soul and changed it into an
immortal goddess whom he married. This story has been
softened down into the tale of her imprisonment, which is un-
poetical enough to be a later invention. The river Anio carried
the cradle like a boat into the Tiber, and the latter conveyed
it to the foot of the Palatine, the water having overflowed the
country, and the cradle was upset at the root of a fig-tree. A
she- wolf carried the babes away and suckled them 7; ]\lars sent
a woodpecker which provided the children with food, and the
bird parra^ which protected them from insects. These state-
ments are gathered from various quarters; for the historians
got rid of the marvellous as much as possible. Faustulus, the
legend continues, found the boys feeding on the milk of the
huge wild-beast, he brought them up with his twelve sons,
and they became the staunchest of all. Being at the head of
the shepherds on Mount Palatine, they became involved in a
quarrel with the shepherds of Numitor on tlie Aventine — the
Palatine and the Aventine are always hostile to each other —
Eemus being taken prisoner was led to Alba, but Eomulus
rescued him, and their descent from Numitor being discovered,
the latter was restored to the throne, and the two young men
obtained permission to form a settlement at the foot of Mount
Palatine where they had been saved.
Out of this beautiful poem, the falsifiers endeavoured to
make some credible story: even the unprejudiced and poetical
Livy tried to avoid the most marvellous points as much as he
could, but the falsifiers went a step farther. In the days when
men had altogether ceased to believe in the ancient gods,
attempts were made to find something intelligible in the old
legends, and thus a history was made up, which Plutarch fondly
embraced and Dionysius did not reject, though he also relates
the ancient tradition in a mutilated form. He says that many
people believed in daemons, and that such a daemon might
have been the father of Eomulus; but he himself is very far
from believing it, and rather thinks that Amulius himself, in
disguise, violated Eca Silvia amid thunder and lightning
produced by artifice. Tliis he is said to have done in order to
have a pretext for getting rid of her, but being entreated by
' In Eastern legends, children are nourished with theman-ow of lions.— N.
* Scrv. on Virg. Aen. i. 274.
KEMURIA. 31
Ills daughter not to drown her, he hiiprisoned her for life. The
children were saved by the shepherd, who was commissioned
to expose them, at the request of Numitor, and two other boys
were put in their place. Numitor's grandsons were taken to
a friend at Gabii, who caused them to be educated according
to their rank and to be instructed in Greek literature. Attempts
have actually been made to introduce this stupid forgery into
history, and some portions of it have been adopted in the nar-
rative of our historians; for example, that the ancient Alban
nobility migrated with the two brothers to Rome; but if this
had been the case there would have been no need of opening
an asylum, nor would it have been necessary to obtain by force
the connuhium with other nations.
But of more historical importance is the difference of
opinion between the two brothers, respecting the building of
the city and its site. According to the ancient tradition, both
were kings and the equal heads of the colony ; Romulus is
universally said to have wished to build on the Palatine, while
Remus, according to some, preferred the Aventinc ; according
to others, the hill Remuria. Plutarch states that the latter is
a hill three miles south of Rome, and cannot have been any
other than the hill nearly opposite St. Paul, which is the more
credible, since this hill, though situated in an otherwise un-
healthy district, has an extremely fine air: a very important
point in investigations respecting the ancient Latin towns, for
it may be taken for certain, that where the air is now healthy
it was so in those times also, and that where it is now decidedly
unhealthy, it was anciently no better. The legend now goes
on to say, that a dispute arose between Romulus and Remus as
to which of them should give the name to the town, and also
as to where it was to be built. A town Remuria therefore
undoubtedly existed on that hill, though subsequently we find
the name transferred to the Aventinc, as is the case so frequently.
Accordins: to the common tradition auoiirs were to decide
between the brothers; Romulus took his stand on the Palatine,
Remus on the Aventinc. The latter observed the whole night
but saw nothing until about sunrise, when he saw six vultures
flying from north to south and sent word of it to Romulus, but
at that very time the latter, annoyed at not having seen any
sign, fraudulently sent a messenger to say that he had seen
twelve vultures, and at the very moment the messenger airivod,
32 ROMA AND REMUKIA.
tliere did appear twelve vultures, to which Romulus appealed.
This account is impossible; for the Palatine and Aventine are
so near eacli other that, as every Roman well knew, whatever
a person on one of the two hills saw high in the air, could not
escape the observation of any one who was watching on the
other. This part of the story therefore cannot be ancient, and
can be saved only by substituting the Remuria for the Aventine.
As the Palatine was the seat of the noblest patrician tribe, and
the Aventine the special town of the plebeians, there existed
between the two a perpetual feud, and thus it came to pass that
in after times the story relating to the Remuria, which was
far away from the city, was transferred to tlie Aventine.
According to Ennius, Romulus made his observations on the
Aventine ; in this case Remus must certainly have been on the
Remuria, and it is said that when Romulus obtained the augury
he threw his spear towards the Palatine. This is the ancient
legend which was neglected by the later writers. Romulus
took possession of the Palatine. The spear taking root and
becoming a tree, which existed down to the time of Nero, is a
symbol of the eternity of the new city, and of the protection
of the gods. The statement that Romulus tried to deceive his
brother is a later addition; and the beautiful poem of Ennius
quoted by CiceroS knows nothing of this circumstance. The
conclusion Avhicli must be drawn from all this is, that in the
earliest times there were two towns, Roma and Remuria, the
latter being far distant from the city and from the Palatine.
Romulus now fixed the boundary of his town, but Remus
scornfully leapt across the ditch, for which he was slain by
Celer, a hint that no one should cross the fortifications of Rome
with impunity. But Romulus fell into a state of melancholy
occasioned by the death of Remus; he instituted festivals to
honor him and ordered an empty throne to be put up by the
side of his own. Thus we have a double kingdom which ends
with the defeat of Remuria.
The question now is what were these two towns of Roma
and Remuria? They were evidently Pelasgian places; the
ancient tradition states that Sicelus migrated from Rome south-
ward to the Pelasgians, that is, the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians were
pushed forAvard to the IMorgetes, a kindred nation in Lucania
and in Sicily. Among the Greeks it was, as Dionysius states,
» De Divinat. i. 48.
FIRST SETTLERS IX ROME. 33
a general opinion, that Rome was a Pelasgian, that is a Tyr-
rhenian city, but the authorities from whom he learnt this are
no longer extant. There is, however, a fragment in which it is
stated that Rome was a sister city of Antium and Ardea. Here
too we must apply the statement from the chronicle of Cumae,
that Evander, Avho, as an Arcadian, was likewise a Pelasgian,
had his palatium on the Palatine. To us he appears of less
importance than in the legend, for in the latter he is one of
the benefactors of nations, and introduced among the Pelas-
gians in Italy the use of the alphabet and other arts, just as
Damaratus did among the Tyrrhenians in Etruria. In this
sense^ therefore, Rome was certainly a Latin town, and had
not a mixed but a purely Tyrrhene- Pelasgian population. The
subsequent vicissitudes of this settlement may be gathered from
the allegories.
Romulus now found the number of his fellow-settlers too
small; the number of 3000 foot and 300 horse, which Livy
gives from the commentaries of the pontiffs, is worth nothing;
for it is only an outline of the later military an^angement trans-
ferred to the earliest times. According to the ancient tradition,
Romulus's band was too small, and he opened an asylum on
the Capitoline hill. This asylum, the old description states,
contained only a very small space, a proof how little these
things were understood historically. All manner of people,
thieves, murderers, and vagabonds of every kind flocked thither.
This is the simple view taken of the origin of the clients. In
the bitterness with which the estates subsequently looked upon
one another, it was made a matter of reproach to the Patricians,
that their earliest ancestors had been vagabonds; though it was
a common opinion, that the patricians were descended from
the free companions of Romulus, and that those who took
refuge in the asylum placed themselves as clients under the
protection of the real free citizens. But now they wanted
women, and attempts were made to obtain the commbium Avitli
neighbouring towns, especially perhaps with Antemnac, which
Avas only four miles distant from Rome, with the Sablncs and
others. This being refused, Romulus had recourse to a stra-
tagem, proclaiming that he had discovered the altar of Consus,
the god of counsels, an allegory of his cunning in general. In
the midst of the solemnities, the Sabine maidens, thirty in
number, were carried off, from whom the curiae received their
VOL. I. . D
34 RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN.
names: tliis is tlie genuine ancient legend, and it proves Kow
small ancient Rome was conceived to have been. In later
times tlie number was thouglit too small, it was supposed tliat
these thirty had been chosen by lot foj the purpose of naming
the curiae after them ; and Valerius Antias fixed the number of
the women who had been carried off at five hundred and twenty-
seven. The rape is placed in the fourth month of the city,
because the consualia fall in August, and the festival comme-
morating the foundation of the city in April; later writers, as
Cn. Gellius, extended this period to four years, and Dionysius
found this of course far more credible. From this rape there
arose wars, first with the neiglibouring towns which were de-
feated one after another, and at last with the Sabines. The
ancient legend contains not a trace of this war having been of
long continuance ; but in later times it was necessarily supposed
to have lasted for a considerable time, since matters were then
measured by a different standard. Lucumo and Caelius came
to the assistance of Romulus, an allusion to the expedition of
Caeles Vibenna, which however belongs to a much later period.
The Sabine king, Tatius, was induced by treachery to settle
on the hill which is called the Tarpeian arx. Between the
Palatine and the Tarpeian rock a battle was fought, in which
neither party gained a decisive victory, until the Sabine women
threw themselves between the combatants, who agreed that
henceforth the sovereignty should be divided between the Ro-
mans and Sabines. According to the annals, this happened in
the fourth year of Rome.
But this arrangement lasted only a short time ; Tatius was
slain during a sacrifice at Lavinium , and his vacant throne was
not filled up. During their common reign, each king had a
senate of one hundred members, and the two senates, after con-
sulting separately, used to meet, and this was called comitium.
Romulus durincv the remainder of his life ruled alone; the
ancient legend knows nothing of his having been a tyrant:
according to Ennius he continued, on the contrary, to be a
mild and benevolent king, while Tatius was a tyrant. The
ancient tradition contained nothing beyond the beginning and
the end of the reigji of Romulus; all that lies between these
points, the war with the Veien tines, Fidenates, and so on, is a
foolish invention of later annalists. The poem itself is beautiful,
but this inserted narrative is highly absurd, as for example the
I
DEATH OF ROMULUS. 35
statement that Eomulus slew 10,000 Veientines with his own
hand. The ancient poem passed on at once to the time when
RomuUis had completed his earthly career, and Jupiter fulfilled
his promise to j\Iars, that Romulus was the only man whom he
would introduce among the gods. According to this ancient
legend, the king was reviewing his army near the marsh of
Caprae^ when, as at the moment of his conception, there oc-
curred an eclipse of the sun and at the same time a hurricane,
during which INIars descended in a fiery chariot and took his
son up to heaven. Out of this beautifid poem the most
Avretchcd stories have been manufactured; Romulus, it is said,
while in the midst of his senators was knocked down, cut into
pieces, and thus carried away by them under their togas. This
stupid story was generally adopted, and that a cause for so
horrible a deed might not be wanting, it was related that in
his latter years Romulus had become a tyrant, and that the
senators took revenge by murdering him.
After the death of Romulus, the Romans and the people of
Tatius quarrelled for a long time with each other, the Sabines
wishing that one of their nation should be raised to the throne,
while the Romans claimed that the new king should be chosen
from among them. At length they agreed, it is said, that the
one nation should choose a king from the other.
We have now reached the point at which it is necessary to
speak of the relation between the two nations, such as it
actually existed.
All the nations of antiquity lived in fixed forms, and their
civil relations were always marked by various divisions and
sub-divisions. When cities raise themselves to the rank of
nations, we alwaj^s find a division at first into tribes; Herodotus
mentions such tribes in the colonisation of Cyrene, and the
same was afterwards the case at the foundation of Thurii ; but
when a place existed anywhere as a distinct township, its nature
was characterised bv the fact of its citizens beinc; at a certain
time divided into gentes (jevi]) each of which had a common
chapel and a common hero. These gentes were united in defi-
nite numerical proportions into curiae {(ppdrpai). The gentes
are not families but free corporations, sometimes close and
sometimes open; in certain cases, the whole body of the state
might assign to them new associates; the great coimcil at
Venice was a close body, and no one could be admitted whose
d2
36 DIVISION OF TUE POPULATION.
ancestors had not been in it, and sucli also was tlie case in
many oligarchical states of antiquity.
All civil communities had a council and an assembly of
burghers, that is a small and a great council; the burghers
consisted of the guilds or gentes, and these again were united,
as it were, in parishes; all the Latin towns had a council of 100
members, who were divided into ten curiae ; this division gave
rise to the name o^ decuriones, which remained in use as a title
of civic magistrates down to the latest times, and through the
lex Julia was transferred to the constitution of the Italian
municipia. That this council consisted of one hundred persons
has been proved by Savigny, in the first volume of his history
of the Koman law. This constitution continued to exist till a
late period of the middle ages, but perished when the institu-
tion of guilds took the place of municipal constitutions.
Giovanni Villani says, that previously to the revolution in the
twelfth century there were at Florence 100 buoni uomini, who
had the administration of the city. There is nothing in our
German cities which answers to this constitution. We must
not conceive those hundred to have been nobles ; they were
an assembly of burghers and country people, as was the case
in our small imperial cities, or as in the small cantons of
Switzerland. Each of them represented a gens ; and they are
those whom Propertius calls patres pelliti. The curia of Rome,
a cottage covered with straw ^", was a faithful memorial of the
times when Kome stood buried in the night of history, as a
small country town surrounded by its little domain.
The most ancient occurrence which we can discover from
the form of the allegory, by a comparison of what happened in
other parts of Italy, is a result of the great and continued com-
motion among the nations of Italy. It did not terminate when
the Oscans had been pressed forward from lake Fucinus to the
lake of Alba, but continued much longer. The Sabines may
have rested for a time, but they advanced far beyond the districts
about which we have any traditions. These Sabines began
as a very small tribe, but afterwards became one of the greatest
nations of Italy, for the Marrucinians, Caudines, Vestinians,
Marsians, Pclignians, and in short all the Samnite tribes, the
Lucanians, the Oscan part of the Bruttians, the Picentians and
several others were all descended from the Sabine stock, and
'" liecens horrcbat regia culmo. Virgil,
THE SABIXES. 37
yet there are no traditions about their settlements except in a
few cases. At the time to which we must refer the foundation
of Rome, the Sabines were widely diffused. It is said that,
guided by a bull, they penetrated into Opica, and thus occu-
pied the country of the Samnites. It was perhaps at an earlier
time that they migrated down the Tiber, whence we there find
Sabine towns mixed with Latin ones; some of their places also
existed on the Anio. The country afterwards inhabited by
the Sabines was probably not occupied by them till a later
period, for Falerii is a Tuscan town, and its population was
certainly at one time thoroughly Tyrrhenian.
As the Sabines advanced, some Latin towns maintained
their independence, others were subdvied; Fidenae belonged
to the former, but north of it all the country was Sabine. Now
by the side of the ancient Roma we find a Sabine town
on the Quirinal and Capitoline close to the Latin town; but
its existence is all that we know about it. A tradition states,
that there previously existed on the Capitoline a Siculian
town of the name of Saturnia^^ which, in this case, must have
been conquered by the Sabines. But whatever we may think
of this, as well as of the existence of another ancient town on
the Janiculum, it is certain that there were a number of small
towns in that district. The two towns could exist perfectly
well side by side, as there was a deep marsh between them.
The town on the Palatine may for a long time have been in
a state of dependence on the Sabine conqueror whom tradition
calls Titus Tatius; hence he was slain during the Laurentinc
sacrifice, and hence also his memoiy was hateful.^" The exist-
ence of a Sabine town on the Quirinal is attested by the un-
doubted occurrence there of a number of Sabine chapels, which
were known as late as the time of Yarro, and from which he
proved that the Sabine ritual was adopted by the Romans.
This Sabine element in the Avorship of the Romans has almost
always been overlooked^-', in consequence of the prevailing
" Varro, L.L. v. (iv.) 42.
'- Eniiius calls him a tyrant in the well -known verse: O Tite, tiite, Tati, tibi
tanta ti/i-anni tiilisti — N.
'^ I have spent many days at Rome in searching after the ancient churchcs,whieh
were pulled down at the time when the town was splendidly rebuilt; hut I never
was able to see my way, until I read the work of a priest of the seventeenth
century, who pointed out the traces of them which .still exist; .ind I conceive
that it was in a similar manner tliat Yarro jioinled out the sites of the Sabine
chapels and nacella on the Quirinal and Capitoline. — N.
38 UNION OF THE SABINES AND ROMANS.
desire to look upon every thing as Etruscan; but, I repeat,
there is no doubt of the Sabine settlement, and that it was the
result of a great commotion among the tribes of middle Italy.
LECTURE IV.
The tradition that the Sabine women were carried off, because
there existed no connubium, and that the rape was followed by a
war, is undoubtedly a symbolical representation of the relation
between the two towns, previous to the establishment of the
right of intermarriage ; the Sabines had the ascendancy and
refused that right, but the Romans gained it by force of arms.
There can be no doubt, that the Sabines were originally the
ruling people, but, that in some insurrection of the Romans
various Sabine places, such as Antemnae, Fidenae and others,
were subdued, and thus these Sabines were separated from
their kinsmen. The Romans therefore re-established their
independence by a war, the result of which may have been
such as we read it in the tradition — Romulus being, of course,
set aside — namely that both places as two closely united towns
formed a kind of confederacy, each with a senate of 100 mem-
bers, a king, an offensive and defensive alliance, and on the
understanding that in common deliberations the burghers of
each should meet together in the space between the two towns
which was afterwards called the comitium. In this manner
they formed a united state in regard to foreign nations.
The idea of a double state was not unknown to the ancient
writers themselves, although the indications of it are preserved
only in scattered passages, especially in the scholiasts. The
head of Janus, which in the earliest times was represented on
the Roman as, is the symbol of it, as has been correctly observed
by writers on Roman antiquities. The vacant throne by the
side of the curule chair of Romulus points to the time when
there was only one king, and represents the equal but quiescent
right of the other people.^
That concord was not of long duration is an historical fact
' Comp. above, page 40.
THE PALATINE AND QUIRINAX,. 39
likewise ; nor can it be doubted that the Eoman king assumed
the supremacy over the Sabines, and that in consequence the
two councils were united so as to form one senate under one
king, it being agreed that the king should be alternately a
Roman and a Sabine, and that each time he should be chosen
by the other people : the king, however, if displeasing to the
non-electing people, was not to be forced upon them, but was
to be invested with the impfrium only on condition of the
auguries being favourable to him, and of his being sanctioned
by the whole nation. The non-electing tribe accordingly had
the right of either sanctioning or rejecting his election. In the
case of Nuraa this is related as a feet, but it is only a disguise-
ment of the right derived from the ritual books. In this
manner the strange double election, which is otherwise so
mysterious and was formerly completely misunderstood, be-
comes quite intelligible. One portion of the nation elected and
the other sanctioned; it being intended that, for example, the
Romans should not elect from among the Sabines a king
devoted exclusively to their own interests, but one who was at
the same time acceptable to the Sabines.
When, perhaps after several generations of a separate
existence, the two states became united, the towns ceased to be
towns, and the collective body of the burghers of each became
tribes, so that the nation consisted of two tribes. The form of
addressing the Roman people was from the earliest times
Populus Romanus Quirites, which, when its origin was forgotten,
was changed into Populus Romanus Quiritium, just as lis vin-
diciae was afterwards chanoed into lis vindiciarum. This chansi'e
is more ancient tlian Llvy ; the correct expression still continued
to be used, but was to a great extent supplanted by the false
one. The ancient tradition relates that after the union of the
two tribes the name Quirites was adopted as the common
designation for the whole people; but this is erroneous, for the
name was not used in this sense till a very late period. This
designation remained in use and was transferred to the plebeians
at a time when the distinction between Romans and Sabines,
between these tw^o anel the Liiccrcs, na}', when even th;it
between patricians and plebeians had almost ceased to be
noticed.^ Thus the two towns stood side by side as tribes
■^ This is not my discovery : it belongs to the great prcsiileiit of the French
Parliament, Barnabas Brissouiu?, from whom \\c may still learn mucli, although
40 RAJVINES AND TITIES. — NUMA.
forming one state, and it is merely a recognition of the ancient
tradition when we call the Latins Ranmes, and the Sabines
Titles : that the derivation of these appellations from Eomiilus
and T. Tatlus is incorrect is no argument against the view
here taken.
Dion3^sius, who had good materials and made use of a great
many, must, as far as the consular period is concerned, have
had more than he gives ; there is in particular one important
change in the constitution, concerning which he has only a
few words, either because he did not see clearly or because he
was careless.^ But as regards the kingly period, he was well
acquainted with his subject; he says that there was a dispute
between the two tribes respecting the senates, and that Numa
settled it, by not depriving the Ramnes, as the first tribe, of
any thing, and by conferring honours on the Titles. This is
perfectly clear. The senate, which had at first consisted of 100
and now of 200 members, was divided into ten decuries, each
being headed by one, who was its leader; these are the decern
primi, and they were taken from the Ramnes. They formed
the college, which, when there was no king, undertook the
government one after another, each for five days, but in such
a manner, that they ahvays succeeded one another in the same
order, as we must believe with Livy, for Dionysius here
introduces his Greek notions of the Attic prytanes, and Plu-
tarch misunderstands the matter altogether.
After the example of the senate the number of the augurs
and pontiffs also was doubled, so that each college consisted of
four members, tAvo being taken from the Ramnes and two from
the Titles. Although it is not possible to fix these changes
chronologically, as Dionysius and Cicero do, yet they are as
historically certain as if we actually knew the kings who intro-
duced them.
Such was Rome in the second stage of its development.
we may correct a gi'cat many trifling errors of detail into which he fell; but
where sliould we now be, had there not been such men as Brissonius, Scaliger,
and Cujacius. Brissonius however on the point here in question goes too far;
for he wishes to emend every where: all exaggeration injures trutli, and the
consequence was, that many persons altogether refused to follow him because
he often erred. The ingenious J. F. Gronovius opposed him, and referred to
passages in Livy which were against him; but, as was remarked above, the
erroneous expression was established previously to the time of Livy. — N.
' See Hist. Rom. vol. ii. p. 179, 220, etc.
DEATH OF NUMA. 41
This period of equalisation is one of peace, and is described as
tlae reign of Xunia about whom the traditions are simple and
brief. It is the picture of a peaceful condition with a holy
man at the head of affairs, like Nicolas von der Flue in Switzer-
land. Numa was supposed to have been inspired by the
goddess Egeria, to whom he was married in the grove of the
Camenae, and who introduced him into the choir of her sisters ;
she melted away in tears at his death, and thus gave her name
to the spring which arose out of her tears. Such a peace of
forty years, during which no nation rose against Eome because
Xuma's piety was communicated to the surrounding nations,
is a beautiful idea, but historically impossible in those times,
and manifestly a poetical fiction.
The death of Kuma forms the conclusion of the first saeculum,
and an entirely new period follows, just as in the Theogony of
Hesiod the age of heroes is followed by the iron age; there is
evidently a change, and an entirely new order of things is con-
ceived to have arisen. Up to this point we have had nothing
except poetry, but with Tullus Hostilius a kind of history
begins, that is, events are related which must be taken in
general as historical, though in the light in which they are
presented to us they are not historical. Thus, for example,
the destruction of Alba is historical, and so in all probability
is the reception of the Albans at Rome. The conquests of
Ancus Martins are quite credible; and they appear like an oasis
of real history in the midst of fables. A similar case occurs
once in the chronicle of Cologne. In the Abyssinian annals,
we find in the thirteenth century a very minute account of
one particular event, in which we recognise a piece of contem-
poraneous history, though we meet with nothing historical
either before or after.
The history which then follows is like a picture viewed from
the wrong side, like phantasmata; the names of the kings are
perfectly fictitious; no man can tell how long the Roman
kings reigned, as we do not know how many there were, since
it is only for the sake of the number, that seven were supposed
to have ruled, seven being a number which appears in many
relations, especially in important astronomical ones. Hence
the chronological statements are utterly worthless. We must
conceive as a succession of centuries, the period from the origin
of Rome down to the times wherein were constructed the
'^^ TULLUS nOSTILIUS.
enormous works, such as tlie great drains, tlie wall of Servius
and others, which were actually executed under the kings, and
rival the great architectural works of the Egyptians. Itomu-
lus and Numa must be entirely set aside; but a long period
follows, in which the nations gradually unite and develop
themselves until the kingly government disappears and makes
way for republican institutions.
But it is nevertheless necessary to relate the history, such as
it has been handed down, because much depends upon it.
There was not the slightest connection between Rome and
Alba, nor is it even mentioned by the historians, though they
suppose that Rome received its first inhabitants from Alba; but
in the reign of Tullus Hostilius the tw^o cities on a sudden ap-
pear as enemies: each of the two nations seeks war, and tries
to allure fortune by representing itself as the injured party,
each wishing to declare war. Both sent ambassadors to demand
reparation for robberies which had been committed. The form
of procedure was this: the ambassadors, that is the Fetiales,
related the grievances of their city to every person they met,
they then proclaimed them in the market place of the other
city, and if, after the expiration of thrice ten days no repara-
tion was made, they said: "We have done enough and now
return," whereupon the elders at home held counsel as to how
they should obtain redress. In this formula accordingly the
res, that is the surrender of the guilty and the restoration of
the stolen property must have been demanded. Xow it is
related that the two nations sent such ambassadors quite simul-
taneously, but that Tullus Hostilius retained the Alban am-
bassadors, ^^ntil he was certain that the Romans at Alba had
not obtained the justice due to them, and had therefore de-
clared war. After this he admitted the ambassadors into the
senate, and the reply made to their complaint was, that they
themselves had not satisfied the demands of the Romans. Livy
then continues: belkim in trigesimum diem dixerant. But the
real formula is, post trigesimum diem, and we may ask. Why
did Livy or the annalist whom he followed make this alteration?
For an obvious reason: a person may ride from Rome to Alba
in a couple of hours, so that the detention of the Alban am-
bassadors at Rome for thirty days, without their hearing what
was going on in the mean time at Alba, was a matter of im-
possibility: Livy saw this, and therefore altered the formula.
WAR WITH ALBA. 43
But the ancient poet was not concerned about such things, and
without hesitation increased the distance in his imagination,
and represented Koine and Alba as great states.
The whole description of the circumstances under which the
fate of Alba was decided is just as manifestly poetical, but we
shall dwell upon it for a while in order to show how a sem-
blance of history may arise. Between Rome and Alba there
was a ditch, Fossa Cluilia or Cloelia, and there must have been
a tradition that the Albans had been encamped there; Livy
and Dionysius mention that Cluilius, a general of the Albans,
had given the ditch its name, having perished there. It was
necessary to mention the latter circumstance, in order to ex-
plain the fact that afterwards their general was a different
person, Mettius Fuffetlus, and yet to be able to connect the
name of that ditch with the Albans. The two states committed
the decision of their dispute to champions^ and Dionysius says,
that tradition did not agree as to whether the name of the
Eoman champions was Horatii or Curiatii, although he him-
self, as well as Livy, assumes that it was Horatii, probably
because it was thus stated by the majority of the annalists.
"Who would suspect any uncertainty here if it were not for this
passage of Dionysius? The contest of the three brothers on
each side is a symbolical indication that each of the two states
was then divided into three tribes. Attempts have indeed
been made to deny that the three men were brothers of the
same birth, and thus to remove the improbability; but the
legend went even further, representing the three brothers on
each side as the sons of two sisters, and as born on the same
day. This contains the suggestion of a perfect equality be-
tween Eome and Alba. The contest ended in the complete
submission of Alba; it did not remain faithful, however, and
in the ensuing struggle with the Etruscans, !Mcttius Fuffetlus
acted the part of a traitor towards Rome, but not being able
to carry his design into effect, he afterwards fell upon the fugi-
tive Etruscans. Tullus ordered him to be torn to pieces and
Alba to be razed to the ground, the noblest Alban lamilies
being transplanted to Rome. The death of Tullus is no less
poetical. Like Numa he undertook to call down lightning
from heaven, but he thereby destroyed himself and his house.
If we endeavour to discover the historical substance of these
legends, we at once find ourselves in a period when Rome no
44 DESTRUCTION OF ALBA.
longer stood alone, but had colonies with Koman settlers, pos-
sessing a third of the territory and exercising sovereign power
over the original inhabitants. This was the case in a small
number of towns for the most part of ancient Siculian origin.
It is an undoubted fact that Alba was destroyed, and that after
this event the towns of the Prisci Latini formed an inde-
pendent and compact confederacy; but whether Alba fell in
the manner described, whether it was ever compelled to recog-
nise the supremacy of Rome, and whether it was destroyed
by the Romans and Latins conjointly, or by the Romans or
Latins alone, are questions which no human ingenuity can
solve. It is however most probable, that the destruction
of Alba was the work of the Latins, who rose ao-ainst her
supremacy: whether in this case the Romans received the
Albans among themselves, and thus became their benefac-
tors instead of destroyers, must ever remain a matter of uncer-
tainty. That Alban families were transplanted to Rome cannot
be doubted, any more than that the Prisci Latini from that
time constituted a compact state; if we consider that Alba
was situated in the midst of the Latin districts, that the Alban
mount Avas their common sanctuary, and that the grove of
Ferentina was the place of assembly for all the Latins, it
must appear more probable that Rome did not destroy Alba,
but that it perished in an insurrection of the Latin towns, and
that the Romans strengthened themselves by receiving the
Albans into their city.
Whether the Albans were the first that settled on the Caelian
hill, or whether it was previously occupied cannot be decided.
The account which places the foundation of the town on the
Caelius in the reign of Romulus suggests that a town existed
there before the reception of the Albans; but what is the au-
thenticity of this account? A third tradition represents it as
an Etruscan settlement of Caeles Vibenna. Thus much is cer-
tain that the destruction of Alba greatly contributed to increase
the power of Rome. There can be no doubt that a third town
whicli seems to have been very populous, now existed on the
Caelius and on a portion of the Esquiliae : such a settlement
close to other towns was made for the sake of mutual protec-
tion. Between the two more ancient towns there continued to
be a marsh or swamp, and Rome was protected on the south
by stagnant water; but between Rome and the third town
THE THIRD TRIBE. 45
tliere was a dry plain. Eome also had a considerable suburb
towards the Aventine protected by a wall and a ditch, as is
implied in the story of Kemus. He is a personification of the
plebs, leaping across the ditch from the side of the Aventine,
though we ought to be very cautious in regard to allegory.
The most ancient town on the Palatine was Rome; the
Sabine town also must have had a name, and I have no doubt
that, according to common analogy, it was Quirium, the name
of its citizens being Quirites. This I look upon as certain. I
have almost as little doubt that the town on the Caelian was
called Lucerum, because when it was united with Rome, its citi-
zens were called Lucertes (Luceres). The ancients derive this
name from Lucumo, king of the Tuscans, or from Lucerus, king
of Ardea; the latter derivation probably meaning, that the race
was Tyrrheno-Latin, because Ardea was the capital of that
race. Rome was thvis enlarged by a thii'd element, which,
however, did not stand on a footing of equality with the two
others, but was in a state of dependance similar to that of Ire-
land relatively to Great Britain down to the year 1782. But
although the Luceres were obliged to recognise the supremacy
of the two elder tribes, they were considered as an integral
part of the whole state, that is, as a third tribe with an admin-
istration of its own, but inferior riirhts. A\liat throws lioht
upon our way here, is a passage of Festus who is a great autho-
rity on mattei's of Roman antiquity, because he made his ex-
cerpts from Yerrius Flaccus ; it is only in a few points that, in
my opinion, either of them was mistaken ; all the rest of the
mistakes in Festus may be accounted for by the imperfection
of the abridgment, Festus not always understanding Vcrrius
Flaccus. The statement of Festus to which I here allude, is,
that Tarquinius Siiperbus increased the number of the Vestals,
in order that each tribe miirht have two. With this we must
connect a passage from the tenth book of Livv, where he says
that the augurs were to represent the three tribes. The num-
bers in the Roman colleges of priests Avere always multiples
either of two or of three ; the latter was the case with the Vestal
Virgins and the great Flamincs, and the former with the Au-
gurs, Pontifls and Fetiales, who represented only the first two
tribes. Previously to the passing of the Ogulnian law the
number of augurs was four, and wlien subsequently five ple-
beians were added, the basis of this increase was difiercnt, it is
46 ANGUS MARCIUS. — WAR WITH THE LATINS.
true*, but the ancient rule of the number being a multiple of
three was preserved. The number of pontiffs which was then
four, was increased only by four: this might seem to contra-
dict what has just been stated, but it has been overlooked that
Cicero speaks of five new ones having been added, for he in-
cluded the Pontifex Maximus, which Livy does not. In like
manner there were twenty Fetiales, ten for each tribe. To the
Salii on the Palatine, Numa added another brotherhood on the
Quirinal; thus we everywhere see a manifest distinction
between the first two tribes and the third, the latter being
treated as inferior.
The third tribe, then, consisted of free citizens, but they had
not the same rights as the members of the first two; yet its
members considered themselves superior to all other people ;
and their relation to the other two tribes was the same as that
existing between the Venetian citizens of the main land and the
nobili. A Venetian nobleman treated those citizens with far
more condescension than he displayed towards others, provided
they did not presume to exercise any authority in political mat-
ters. Whoever belonged to the Luceres, called himself a
Roman, and if the very dictator of Tusculum had come to
Rome, a man of the third tribe there would have looked upon
him as an inferior person, though he himself had no influence
whatever.
Tullus was succeeded by Ancus. Tullus appears as one of
the Ramnes, and as descended from Hostus Hostilius, one of
the companions of Romulus ; but Ancus was a Sabine, a grand-
son of Numa. The accounts about him are to some extent
historical, and there is no trace of poetry in them. In his
reign, the development of the state again made a step in ad-
vance. According to the ancient tradition, Rome was at war
with the Latin towns, and carried it on successfully. How many
of the particular events which are recorded may be historical,
I am unable to say ; but that there was a war is credible enough.
Ancus, it is said, carried away after this war many thousands
of Latins, and gave them settlements on the Aventine. The
ancients express various opinions about him ; sometimes he is
described as a captator auroe pojmlai-is ; sometimes he is called
bonus Ancus. Like the first three kings, he is said to have
been a legislator, a fact which is not mentioned in reference to
* Namely 4 + 5, five being the plebeian number.
FOUNDATION OF OSTIA. — THE PLEBS. 47
the later kings. He is moreover stated to have established the
colony of Ostia, and thus his kingdom must have extended as
far as the mouth of the Tiber.
Ancus and Tullus seem to me to be historical personages;
but we can scarcely suppose that the latter was succeeded by
the former, and that the events assigned to their reigns actually
occurred in them. These events must be conceived in the fol-
lowing manner. Towards the end of the fourth reign, when,
after a feud which lasted many years, the Romans came to an
understanding with the Latins about the renewal of the long
neglected alliance, Rome gave up its claims to the supremacy
which it could not maintain, and indemnified itself by extend- '
ins its dominion in another and safer direction. The eastern
colonies joined the Latin towns which still existed: this is
evident, though it is nowhere expressly mentioned ; and a por-
tion of the Latin country was ceded to Rome; with which the
rest of the Latins formed a connection of friendship, perhaps
of isopolity. Rome here acted as wisely as England did when
she recognised the independence of Xorth America.
Li this manner Rome obtained a territory. The many
thousand settlers whom Ancus is said to have led to the Aven-
tine, were the population of the Latin towns which became
subject to Rome, and they were far more numerous than the
two ancient tribes, even after the latter had been increased by
their union with the third tribe. In these country districts lay
the power of Rome, and from them she raised the armies with
which she carried on her wars. It would have been natural
to admit this population as a fourth tribe, but such a measure
was not agreeable to the Romans : the constitution of the state
was completed and was looked upon as a sacred trust, in which
no change ought to be introduced. It was with the Greeks and
Romans as it was with our own ancestors, whose separate tribes
clung to their hereditary laws and diilc'red from one another in
this respect as much as they did from the Gauls in the colour
of their eyes and hair. They knew well enough that it was in
their power to alter the laws, but they considered them as
somethins which ought not to be altered. Thus when the
emperor Otho was doubtful on a point of the law of inheritance,
he caused the case to be decided by an ordeal or judgment of
' God. In Sicily one city had Chalcidian, another Doric laws,
although their populations, as well as their dialects, wore
48 TARQUINIUS PRISCUS.
greatly mixed; but the leaders of tliose colonies had been
Chalcidians in the one case, and Dorians in the others. The
Chalcidians moreover were divided into four, the Dorians into
three tribes, and their differences in these respects were mani-
fested even in their weights and measures.^ The division into
three tribes was a genuine Latin institution; and there are
reasons which render it probable that the Sabines had a divi-
sion of their states into four tribes. The transportation of the
Latins to Rome must be regarded as the origin of the plebs.
LECTURE V.
Although the statement that Ancus carried the Latins away
from their habitations and transplanted them to Rome, as if he
had destroyed their towns, cannot be believed because it is
impossible, since the settlers would have been removed many
miles from their possessions and would have left an empty
country, yet it cannot be doubted that Ancus Martins is justly
called the founder of the town on the Aventine. There arose
on that spot a town which even to the latest times remained
politically separated : it existed by the side of Rome but was
distinct from it, not being included within the pomoerium so
long as any value was attached to that line of demarcation.
In following the narrative as it has been transmitted to us,
O
we now come to a period, which was probably separated by a
great chasm from the preceding one. In the reign of Tarquinius
Priscus, Rome appears in so different a light, that it is impos-
sible to conceive him as the successor of Ancus, whose conquests
were confined to a small space, and under whom Rome formed
its first connection with the sea through the foundation of
Ostia; whereas under Tarquinius, things are mentioned of
which traces are visible to this day. Tarquinius is described
as half an Etruscan, the son of Damaratus by an Etruscan
woman. His father is said to have been a Bacchiad, who in
* When the Achacans spread over the Peloponnesus, Sicyon first adopted
their vS/itfia, and its example was gradually followed by the other towns, and
thus the Doric laws almost disappeared. Attempts were made to compel Sparta
also to abandon its old laws, but without success. — Ed.
THE STORY OF DAMARATUS. 49
the revolution of Cypselus quitted Corinth with his immense
wealth, and went to Tarquinii. His property descended to his
son L. Tarquinius, as his elder son Aruns had died previously,
leaving a wife in a state of pregnancy, a circumstance of which
the elder Tarquinius was not aware. This account is com-
monly believed to be of considerable authority, because Poly-
bius, though a Greek, mentions Tarquinius as a son of"
Damaratus, and because chronology is supposed not to be
against it. But this is only an illusion, because the time
depends upon the correctness of the chronological statements
respecting the Eoman kings, according to which Tarquinius
Priscus is said to have ascended the throne in the year lo2
after the building of the city; but if we find ourselves com-
pelled to place him at a later period, the story of Damaratus
and Cypselus, which may with tolerable certainty be referred
to the thirtieth Olympiad, must fall to the ground. I have
already remarked elsewhere, that the ancient annalists, with
the sole exception of Piso, never doubted that Tarquinius
Superbus was a son of Tarqiunius Priscus, whence the time
assigned to the latter must be utterly wrong; his relationship
to Damaratus is therefore impossible.
The story of Damaratus belongs to the ancient tradition
respecting the • connection between Greece and Etruria, and
the civilisation introduced fuom the former into the latter
country. ^V^lat Evander was to the Latins, that Damaratus
was to the Etruscans or Tyrrhenians, as he is said to have
made them acquainted with the Cadmcan alphabet ; and accord-
ing to the most ancient Greek tradition he belongs to a period
as remote as that of Evander. Wliat caused him to be connect-
ed with Tarquinius Priscus was the fact of the ancient legend
mentioning Tarquinii as the place where Damaratus settled,
though it undoubtedly knew nothing of his belonging to the
family of the Bacchiadac, which must be an addition made by
later narrators, who every where endeavoured to connect the
history of one country with that of another. The reason for
making Damaratus proceed to Tarquinii may have been the
fact that Tarquinii was an important city; but at the same
time there is no doubt that a connection existed between Tar-
quinii and Corinth. It was formerly believed that the vases
and other vessels found in Tuscany were of" ICtruscan origin ;
this idea was afterwards justly given up. but then a belief arose
VOL. I. E
60 GREEK DESCENT OF TARQUINIUS.
that such vases never existed in ancient Etruria. In our days
vessels are dug out of the ground at Corneto, which perfectly
resemble the most ancient Greek ones; I do not mean those
which were formerly called Etruscan, but those actually found
in Greece and belonging to the earliest times, especially the
Corinthian ones, of which representations are given in Dod-
well.'' Pieces of such vases are found only in the neighbour-
hood of ancient Tarquinii; in all the rest of Tuscany scarcely
one or two of them have been discovered; in 'the north-
eastern part of the country, about Arezzo and Fiesole, the
Arretinian vases of red clay with raised figures are of quite a
peculiar form and very numerous, but do not occur any where
on the coast. This artistic connection between Tarquinii and
Greece, especially Corinth, is accounted for in the tradition by
the statement that the artists Eucheir and Eugrammus ac-
companied Damaratus from Corinth.
Now when it was observed that Tarquinius Priscus was
referred to Tarquinii, and a comparison of this statement was
made with the tradition that the solemn Greek worship had
first been introduced by him into Eome, people at once said :
This must be the work of an ancient Greek; they compared
the Roman chronology, as it was laid down in the work of the
pontiffs, with the chronology of Greece, a comparison which
might be made after the time when Timaeus wrote his history.
They soon found that the combination became possible, if
Damaratus was represented as the father of Tarquinius. This
Tarquinius Priscus or Lucumo is said to have gone to Eome
with his wife Tanaquil, an Etruscan prophetess, because at
Tarquinii he did not enjoy the full rights of a citizen. On
his journey thither a marvellous occurrence announced to him
that heaven had destined him for great things ; many glorious
exploits are ascribed to his reign; but our narratives here
diverge : that of Livy is very modest, but another represents
him as the conqueror of all the Etruscan towns. All this
may be read in detail in Dionysius, and the accounts of it
belong to the ancient Roman annals, so that Augustus caused
these victories to be registered even in the triumphal fasti as
three distinct triumphs and with certain dates, as we see from
the fragments.2 The Romans had the more reason to believe
' Classical Tour, ii. p. 195. — Ed,
' The destruction of this monument is the fault of those who made it; they
ought to have chosen a better material. — N.
TARQUINIUS CALLED LUCUMO. 51
these statements, because Tarqulnius Priscus was mentioned as
the king who united the town of the Sabines to that of the
Eomans and executed the gigantic works by which the valleys
also were filled up.
The same tradition invariably calls Tarquinius Priscus,
Lucumo; now this never was a proper name, but was the
Etruscan title of a prince. Whenever the Romans wished to
invent a story about the Etruscans, they called the men Lucumo,
Aruns, or Lars. The last probably signifies " king." Aruns
was an ordinary name, as we know from the inscriptions on
Etruscan tombs, in which we can distinguish the names though
we do not understand a single word. I have examined all
the Etruscan inscriptions; and have come to the conclusion
that their language is totally different from Latin, and that
only a few things can be made out by conjecture, as for
example, that ril avil means vixit annos. Lucumo does not
occur in these inscriptions, and the ancient philologers, such
as Verrius Flaccus, knew that it was not a name. The Romans
had several traditions about a Lucumo, who is connected with
the history of Rome; one, for example, was a companion of
Romulus. All these Lucuraos are no other than Liicius Tar-
quinius Priscus himself, that is, tradition has referred to him
all that was related of the others. Livy says that at Rome he
assumed the name Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, a statement for
which scholars have charged Livy with rashness : it is rashness,
however, only on the supposition that he took Priscus in the
sense of "ancient." But it may often have happened to
Livy when writing his first book, that he composed his narra-
tive with the conviction that it was not all literally true, and
that something else might be imderstood by it. Priscus was
a common name among the Romans; it occurs in the family
of the Servilii and many others; Cato was called Priscus before
he obtained the name Cato, that is, Catus, the prudent.
I am satisfied that Tarquinius was connected with the town of
Tarquinii only on account of his name, and that he was in
reality a Latin. This opinion is supported by the mention of
Tarquinii, who after the expulsion of the kings dwelt at Lau-
rentum, and by the statement, that Collatinus retired to
Lavinium which was a Latin town. Moreover, the whole
story of the descent of Tarquinius Priscus from Damaratus is
overturned by the fact that Cicero, Varro, and even Livy,
E 2
52 TARQUINIUS TRISCUS, A LATIN.
acknowledged the existence of a gens Tarquinia : and how
totally different is a gens from a family consisting of only two
branches, that of the kings and that of CoUatinus? Yarro
expressly says: Omnes Tarquinios ejecerunt ne quam reditionis
per gentilitatem spem haberet.
The desire also of accounting for an Etruscan influence
upon Rome, contributed, independently of his name, towards
connecting Tarquinius with Etruria. The Romans described
Servius TuUius, who was an Etruscan, as a Latin of Corni-
culum, and made Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, who was a Latin,
an Etruscan. Thus the whole account of his descent is a fable,
and Tanaquil too is a perfect fiction, for the Romans gave this
name to any woman whom they wished to characterise as
Etruscan, it being a common name in Etruria, as we see in
the inscriptions. In the ancient native tradition, Tarquinius
was married to a Latin woman, Caja Caecilia, a name which must
be traced to Caeculus, the founder of Praeneste. Her image
was set up in the temple of Semo Sancus, for she was worshipped
as a goddess presiding over female domesticity. This has a
genuine national character ; so much so that in the ancient
legend the people are said to have rubbed off particles from
the girdle of her brass statue, to be used as a medicine.
It is therefore historically certain that there was a Latin of
the name of Tarquinius Priscus ; but he most probably belonged
to the Luceres, for whom he procured seats in the senate, one
hundred being added, as gentes minores, to the two hundred
senators who were called up by the king before the gentes
minores ? In the insurrection of Tarquinius against Servius
Tullius, these additional senators were his faction. The reign
of Tarquinius, as I have already remarked, is probably sepa-
rated by a great chasm ^from the preceding period, for under
him Rome presents quite a different appearance from what it
had been before. The conquests ascribed to Ancus ]\Iarcius
are confined to a very small extent of country : he made him-
self master of the mouth of the Tiber and fortified Ostia.
But after him a state of things is described by the historians, of
which traces are still visible. Even at the present day there
stands unchanged the great sewer, the cloaca maxima, the
object of which, it may be observed, was not merely to carry
away the refuse of the city, but chiefly to drain the large^lake,
which was formed by the Tiber between the Capitoline,
THE CLOACA MAXIMA. 53
Aventine and Palatine, then extended between the Palatine
and Capitoline, and reached as a swamp as far as the district
between the Quirinal and Viminal. This work, consisting of
three semicircles of immense square blocks, which, though
without mortar, have not to this day moved a knife's breadth
from one another, drew the water from the surface, conducted
it into the Tiber, and thus changed the lake into solid ground ;
but as the Tiber itself had a marshy bank, a large wall was
built as an embankment, the greater part of which still exists.
This structure, equalling the pyramids in extent and massive-
ness, far surpasses them in the difficulty of its execution. It
is so gigantic, that the more one examines it the more incon-
ceivable it becomes how even a large and powerfril state could
have executed it. In comparison with it, the aqueducts of
the emperors cannot be considered grand, for they were built
of bricks with cement in the inner parts, but in the more
ancient work everything is made of square blocks of hewn
Alban stone, and the foundations are immensely deep.
Now whether the cloaca maxima was actually executed by
Tarquinius Priscus or by his son Superbus, is a question about
which the ancients themselves are not agreed, and respecting
which true historical criticism cannot presume to decide. But
thus much may be said, that the structure must have been
completed before the city encompassed the space of the seven
hills, and formed a compact whole. This, however, was effected
by the last king, and accordingly if we wish to make use of
a personification, we may say that the great sewer was built in
the time of Tarquinius Priscus. But such a work cannot
possibly have been executed by the powers of a state such as
Kome is said to have been in those times; for its territory ex-
tended from the river not more than about ten miles in breadth,
and, at the utmost, from thirty to forty in length, which is
not as large as the territory of Niirnberg: and this objection is
the more weighty when we take into consideration all the
difficulties of an age in which commerce and wealth had no
existence. A period must therefore have been passed over in
our histories, and we now all at once see Rome as a kingdom
ruling far and wide, and quite different from what it had been
before. Of this extensive dominion no mention is made by
Livy, though he expresses his wonder at these architectural
structures ; he conceives that time still as the state of the city's
54 ROME A GREAT STATE.
infancy, and is therefore under the same erroneous belief as
Cicero and all the later writers, namely, tliat the kingly
period must be regarded as an age in which Kome was ex-
tremely weak. The statement of Dionysius, that the Etruscan
towns, the Latins, and the Sabinespaid homage to Tarquinius,
might therefore seem to be more deserving of credit, but all
the accounts of the manner in which this state of things was
brought about, are so fabulous and fictitious, that it is evident
they must have been manufactured by those who attempted
to solve the mysterious problem; and we have no historical
ground to stand upon. But in whatever way Tarquinius
Priscus may have been connected with the Tuscan traditions
about the conquests of Tarchon, we can with certainty say,
that at that time Home was either herself the mistress of a
large empire, or was the seat of a foreign ruler; at any rate,
Eome at one period was the centre of a great empire.
Another no less mysterious undertaking is ascribed to the
reign of the same Tarquinius Priscus: he wanted, it is said,
to double the Komulian tribes, that is, to add three new tribes
with names derived from his own and those of some of his
friends. This plan was opposed by the augur Attius Navius,
because the three tribes were inseparably connected with the
auspices. The tradition probably did not run as Livy relates it,
but as we read it in Dionysius, that Tarquinius himself cut
through the wet stone, and in doing so injured his hand. The
king now is said, not indeed to have formed three new tribes, but
to have added new centuries to the ancient ones.^ In this tradi-
* No ancient nation could change its division without altering its whole charac-
ter. This is not the case in modern states, forwhen at Florence the small guilds
were added to the seven great ones, it produced little change, and even if the
number had been changed to twelve, it would have been of no consequence.
But if in antiquity an Ionic nation, for example, which had four tribes, had
assumed a different dinsion, it would have been equivalent to a revolution, and
coiild have been done only by entirely changing the character of the people.
When the number of tribes at Rome had been reduced to twenty, and was after-
wards raised to upwiu'ds of thirty, tliis was done because the inviolability of
form had been given up in consequence of other circumstances. Cleisthenes is
said to have increased the four Attic tribes to ten ; but I believe .that he never
di-vidcd the demos into ten tribes, and that the throwing together of the deinos
and the politae, whicli caused the four ancient tribes to disappear, took place at
a later time. It is a singular fact, that we can describe the ancient Roman con-
stitution witli much more certainty than that of Athens at the same period,
although tlie extant Attic historians lived scai-cely a century after the great
change*. -N.
THE CENTURIES DOUBLED. 55
tion, therefore, mention is made of the unalterableness of the
tribes, and of the ruler's intention to double the population by
the admission of new citizens, an intention which the ancient
citizens opposed by an appeal to the sacred rites of religion.
But we here see a ruler who is not a mere magistrate, but one
who has it in his power to give weight to his authority: as
far as the form was concerned he yielded, but he virtually
introduced the change by forming second centuries. Centuries
and tribes were originally identical, each tribe containing one
hundred gentes ; but what these second centuries were, is
quite uncertain. One supposition is, that, as many of the old
gentes had become extinct, Tarquinius formed new ones ;
supposmg, for example, that those of the Ramnes had thus
been reduced to fifty, the king would have added fifty new
gentes as secundi Ramnes, to complete the number one hun-
dred. We have an example in the Potitii,who became extinct
in the time of Appius Claudius, when, it is said, they still
consisted of twelve families. The history of exclusive families
shows how rapidly they become extinct : in Styria there were
formerly 2,000 noble families; at present there scarcely exist
a dozen : in the duchy of Bremen the nobles entitled to take
part in the diet were within fifty years reduced to one half of
their original number, only because they tolerated no marriages
except among themselves. In Liineburg the government was
formerly in the hands of the houses {gentes), of whom at
present only one remains. It is not impossible that Tar-
quinius may have united the remnants of the ancient curiae,
and then supplied the number of the wanting gentes. What
recommends this conjecture, is the fact that there continued
to be some difference between the old and the new gentes ; the
new centuries certainly had not so much influence as they would
have had, if they had been constituted as separate tribes.
It is a very dangerous thing to seek for allegories in histo-
rical statements, and then to presume to derive from them
historical facts. Thus as Ancus Marcius was the creator of
the plebs, and as Tarquinius is said to have been miu'dered by
the JMarcii, we might infer that Tarquinius, who belonged to
the Luceres, and had introduced them into the senate, perished
in an insurrection of the plebeians. But this is a most hazard-
ous conjecture, and for this reason I have not printed it in my
history. In mentioning it here I rely on that confidence
56 THE ETliUSCAN LANGUAGE.
wliich a man may claim who has devoted himself to these inves-
tigations for eighteen years almost uninterruptedly, and who
even before that time had with fondness spent many a year
upon them. Do not mistake possibilities for historical results.
The tradition which represents Tarquinius as the acknow-
ledged head of the twelve Etruscan towns leads us to speak
about the Etruscans. Of all the nations of antiquity they are
perhaps the one concerning which the most different things
have been said, though our materials are of the slenderest kind,
and concerning which accordingly the greatest misconceptions
have been formed. The impositions of such persons as Annius
of Viterbo, Inghirami and others, are of the most impudent
character, and yet have become the groundwork of many later
productions : they misled Dempster, and through him Winckel-
mann was deceived. In the eighteenth century the ItaHans
ceased indeed to forge documents, but with the greatest con-
ceit they pretended to explain the inexplicable. Many Etrus-
can monuments with inscriptions exist, but few are large.
Five years ago an altar was dug out which is covered on
three sides with inscriptions; a cippus was found at Perugia, a
coffin at Bolscna, etc. These monuments have been published
either separately or in collections, particularly by Lanzi; some
works of art also bear inscriptions; to interpret them has a
great charm, because if we could read them, a new light would
be thrown upon our investigations. This has given rise to
the confident assertions that they can be explained, and the
most arbitary interpretations have been put upon them. The
Eastern languages and the Celtic have been resorted to for
assistance, until at length Lanzi proceeded on the supposition
that the Etruscan was a kind of Greek, and, contrary to all
the rules of grammar, arbitrarily made out some bad Greek;
with all our Etruscan monuments, we know nothing, and are
as ignorant as we were of the hieroglyphics previously to the
time of Champollion ; nothing but large bilingual inscriptions
can be of any assistance. We may say with certainty that the
Etruscan has not the slightest resemblance to Latin or Greek,
nay, not to any one of the languages known to us, as was
justly remarked even by Dionysius. This passage of Diony-
sius has been intentionally overlooked, or its positive meaning
has been distorted into a conditional one. The Umbrian on
the Eugubinian tables rcscinblcs Latin.
ETRUSCANS AND TYRllHENIANS. 57
Dionysius states that the Etruscans looked upon themselves
us an original people descended from no other race, and which
called itself Easena* and knew nothing of the names Tyrrhen-
ians and Etruscans ; nor of the Grecian traditions respecting
them. But the Greeks had two distinct traditions about the
Tyrrhenians, which they referred to the Etruscans : the one
recorded by Hellanicus stated that Pelasgians from Thessaly
had settled at Spina at the mouth of the Po, whence they
proceeded across the mountains into Etruria; according to the
second related by Herodotus, the Lydians, in the time of
Atys, are said to have been visited by a famine, whereby a
part of the people was obliged under Tyrrhenus to emigrate
to Italy. This latter statement is controvei'ted by Dionysius
with that sound criticism which we sometimes meet with in
his work, that neither the laniTuacre nor the religion of the
Etruscans bore any resemblance to that of the Lydians, and
that neither the Etruscans nor the Lydian historian Xanthus
were acquainted with it.^ Dionysius here saw con-ectly,
because he was not confined to books, but could judge from
personal observation. The other tradition he treats differently ;
he does not give it up, but refers it to the Aborigines and not
to the Etruscans. The Italian antiquaries, on the other hand,
have either clung to the Lydian tradition, or referred the
emigration of the Pelasgians from Thessaly to the Etruscans,
and they say that the inhabitants of Cortona (Croton) were
not at all different from the neighbouring tribes, notwithstand-
ing the protestation of Herodotus. I can here give only the
results of my investigations about the Etruscans. In the new
edition of the first volume of my Roman history, I have
proved that the name Tyrrhenians was transferred by the
Greeks to the Etruscans, just as we use the name Britons
when we speak of the English, or INIexicans and Peruvians in
speaking of the Spaniards, in America, because the Britons,
Mexicans and Peruvians originally inhabited those countries,
although a new immi2:ratinoj nation has established an order
of things so entirely new that we perceive no more traces of
* Easena, probably not Rasenna; Has is the root and ena the termination: as
in Porscna, Caecina; the Etruscans, like the Semitic nations, did not double the
consonants. — N.
* C. O. Miiller has shewn that the work of Xanthns was undesen-cdlv looked
upon by the Greeks as spmious.^N.
58 LANGUAGE OF THE RASENA.
an earlier condition than if it had not existed at all. The
Tyrrhenians were a people quite different from the Etruscans,
but inhabited the sea coast of Etruria, as well as the whole
southern coast, as far as Oenotria, that is Calabria and Basili-
cata. These Tyrrhenians were Pelasgians just as much as
those of Peloponnesus and Thessaly, and when we read in
Sophocles of Tvpprjvoi UeX.aa'yol in Argos, when according
to Aeschylus, Pelasgus, son of Palaechthon, ruled in Argos,
when according to Thucydides Tyrrhenians lived on mount
Athos and in Lemnos, and according to Herodotus at the foot
of Hymettus, we must recognise them everywhere as branches
of the same stock. In the history of Asia Minor there is a
gap beginning after the destruction of Troy, and we must
fill it up by supposing that the Lydians, Carians and Mysians
advanced from the interior towards the coast into the territory
of Troy, and that the Maeonians and other Pelasgian tribes
were partly subdued and partly expelled. The Maeonians,
who are always distinguished from the Lydians, were likewise
Tyrrhenians, and are so called by Ovid in the fable of Bacchus.
These were the Tyrrhenians that gave their name to the
western coast of Italy and to the Tyrrhenian sea, and whom
the Komans called Tusci. Both names were afterwards trans-
ferred to the Rasena who descended as conquerors from the
Alps. This view at once renders the account of Herodotus
perfectly clear, and is now generally adopted both in Germany
and England. The tradition in Herodotus is a genealogy
intended to explain how it happened that Lydians existed
in Italy as well as in Lydia.
There is one difficulty, which though it does not weaken
the evidence of my view, is nevertheless a surprising fact,
namely, that after the Etruscan conquest of the Tyrrhenian
country, the language of the Rasena is the only one that is
found on the many monuments, and that we do not find a
trace of inscriptions in a language akin to the Greek, such as
we must suppose the Tyrrhenian language to have been. But
in the first place, almost all the inscriptions have been dis-
covered in the interior of the country, about Perugia, Volterra,
Arrczzo and other places, where the original population was
Umbrian and only a very few on the coast about Pisa, Popu-
lonia, Caere and Tarquinii ; some more have lately been found
at Tarquinii, but have not yet been published. We might
EXTINCTION OF VERNACULAR LANGUAGES. 59
also say, although no Tyrrhenian inscriptions have hitherto
been found, still they may yet be discovered; but such an eva-
sion is worth nothing. Under the rule of a conquering nation
which imposes a heavy yoke on the conquered, the language
of the latter frequently becomes quite extinct : in Asia and
many other countries, it was the practice to forbid the use of
the vernacular tongue, in order to prevent treachery. The
Moors were, in many respects, mild rulers in Spain, and the
country flourished under tjiem ; but in Andalusia one of their
kings forbade the Christians to use the Latin language^ under
penalty of death, the consequence of which was that a hun-
dred years later not a trace of it occurs. The whole Christian
population of Caesarea spoke Greek down to the eighteenth
century; when a pasha prohibited it, and after the lapse of
thirty or forty years, when my father visited the place, not one
of the inhabitants understood Greek. When the Normans
conquered Sicily, the only languages spoken in the island were
Greek and Arabic, and the laws were written in Greek as late
as the time of the emperor Frederic II., but afterwards it dis-
appears all at once. The same thing happened in Terra di
Lecce and Terra di Otranto, where afterwards the names were
Italian, while the language of common life remained Greek,
until 200 years later, in the fifteenth century, it died away.
In Pomerania and Mecklenburg the Wendic language dis-
appeared within a few generations, and that without an immi-
gration of Germans, but merely because the princes were
partial to the German language; the conquerors of Branden-
burg forbade the use of Wendic under penalty of death, and
in a short time nothing was spoken but low German. The
Etruscans had quite an aristocratic constitution, and lived in
the midst of a large subject country; under such circumstances
it must have been of great importance to them to make their
subjects adopt the Etruscan language.
The conquering Easena must have come down from the
Alps, since according to Livy and Strabo the Kaetians as well
as the other Alpine tribes, the Camuni, the Lepontii on the
lake of Como, and others, belonged to the race of the Etrus-
cans. No ancient writer has ever asserted that they withdrew
from the plains into the Alps in consequence of the conquests
of the Gauls, and it would be absurd to think that a people
60 CONQUESTS OF THE ETRUSCANS.
which fled before the Gauls from the plain of Patavium, should
have been capable of subduing Alpine tribes, or should have
been tolerated among them, unless the Alpine districts had
before been in the possession of their kinsmen. There is a
tradition, probably derived from Cato, that the Etruscans
conquered 300 Umbrian towns ; these towns must be conceived
to have been in the interior of Tuscany, a part of which bore
the name of Umbria for a long time after ; and a river Umbro
also is mentioned. The Etruscans therefore are one of the
northern tribes that were pushed southward by the pressure of
those early migrations of nations which are as well established
in history as the later ones, although we have no written re-
cords of them; they were migrations like that which had
pressed forward the lUyrianSj in consequence of which the
Illyrian Enchelians about the fortieth Olymiad penetrated
into Greece and plundered Delphi, as Herodotus relates.
Such a migration must have driven the Etruscans from the
north. They at one time inhabited Switzerland and the
Tyrol; nay, there can be no doubt that the Etruscans in those
countries experienced the same fate as the Celts in Spain, and
that some tribes maintained themselves there longer than others.
The Heidenmauer (the heathen-wall) near Ottilienberg in
Alsace, which Schweighiiuser has described as one of the most
remarkable and inexj)licable monuments, is evidently an Etrus-
can work ; it has exactly the character of the Etruscan fortifi-
cations, such as we find them at VolteiTa, Cortona, and Fiesole.
Some have called this kind of architecture Gallic, but without
any foundation, as we sec from Caesar's description, as well as
from other ruins and buildings in Gaul.
In central Italy there are two essentially different modes of
fortification; the one consists of what are commonly called
Cyclopean walls formed of polygonal stones which are put
together intentionally without any regular order; such a wall
is raised around a hill so as to render it abnost perpendicular,
but on the top of the hill there is no wall; a path (clivus)
accessible on horseback leads to the top and there are gates botli
below and above. In this manner the Koman and Latin hills
were fortified. The other kind of fortification is Etruscan:
on the highest ridge of a hill difficult of access, a wall is built,
not of polygons but of parallclopipcda of extraordinary dimen-
sions and very rarely of ^;cj[uarc blocks; the wall runs along
MEZENTIUS OF CAERE. 61
the ridge of the hill in all directions; such is the case at
Volterra, and of the same kind is the above mentioned wall in
Alsace. I do not place the construction of the latter in a
very remote time, but conceive it to be the work of a tribe
akin to the Etruscans, which long maintained itself in that
country against the Celts; although I must add, that I should
not like to refer to the wall in question as an irrefragable
argument for the existence of such a tribe in that district.
Now the Etruscans first settled in twelve towns in Lombardy,
extending to about the present Austrian fi-ontier towards Pied-
mont (Pa via was not Etruscan), in the south from Parma to
Bologna, and in the north from the Po to Verona; they then
spread farther, and in the country south of the Apennines they
either founded or enlarged twelve other towns, from which
they ruled over the country. The common opinion is, that
the Etruscans were a very ancient people in Italy, and I
myself entertained tliis ^aew for a longtime; but in Tuscany
they were not very ancient, and in the southern part of Tus-
cany, which now belongs to the papal dominion, they did not
establish themselves till a very late period. Herodotus relates,
that about the year of Kome 220 the unfortunate Phocaeans
were conquered in a sea fight by the Agyllaeans of Corsica
and the Carchedonians, and that those of them who were
taken prisoners were stoned to death. When Heaven punish-
ed the Agyllaeans for this cruelty, they sent to Delphi, and
Apollo ordered them to offer Greek sacrifices, and worship Greek
heroes. Now all writers are unanimous in stating that Agylla
bore this name as long as it was Pelasgian, and that afterwards
the Etruscans called it Caere. We may with great probability
look upon Mezentius, the tyrant of Caere in^the legend which
Virgil ^vith his great learning introduced into his poem as the
Etruscan conqueror of Caere; he afterwards appears as the
conqueror of Latium, and demands for himself the tenth of its
wine or even the whole produce of the vineyards. The Etrus-
can conquests belong to the period of the last kings of Rome,
and are connected with the expeditions of the Etruscans against
Cuma and into the country of the Volscians; they spread
into these districts about the time between the sixtieth and
seventieth Olympiads; according to Cato's statement, which is
certainly of great weight, they founded Capua in the year of
Rome 283. The shortness of the time in which that town is said
62 LATIN AND SABINE ORIGIN OF ROME.
to have risen to greatness and declined again, which Velleius
mentions as an objection, cannot render the fact improbable.
Capua had after all existed for 250 'years before it became
great, and New York is a far more surprising instance of rapid
growth. The flourishing period of this peofile therefore was the
time when Hiero of Syracuse defeated them near Cuma, and
they began to decline at the beginning of the fourth century
of Kome ; the Eomans were then rising, and about the middle
of that century the Gauls deprived the Etruscans of the northern
part of their dominion, their possessions about the river Po.
AVlien people began to perceive that the Alban origin of
Rome could not be maintained, Rome was looked upon as an
Etruscan colony, and I myself brought forward this opinion.
It forms the ground-work of the first edition of my history,
because I then considered the Albano-Latin origin to be
erroneous; the Etruscan origin seemed to me to be confirmed
by several circumstances, particularly by the statement of one
Volnius in Varro, thatthe names of the earliest Roman tribes
were Etruscan; and also by the observation that the secret
theology of the Romans had come from Etruria, that the sons
of the first ten in the Roman senate learned the religious laws
in Etruria ; and lastly, that the worship of Jupiter, Juno,^and
Minerva in the Capitol was probably of Etruscan origin. But
an unbiassed examination^afterwards convinced me that this
theory was unfounded; and that the two original elements of
the Roman state were Latin and Sabine (though I do not wish
to dispute the later addition of an Etruscan element), that
Rome is much older than the extension of the Etruscans in
those districts, and consequently that either the statement of
Volnius is groundless, or the names of the tribes are of a more
recent date than the tribes themselves, and lastly, the great influ-
ence of the Etruscans about the time which is commonly desio--
natsd as the reign of Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius is
perfectly sufficient to explain all the Etruscan institutions at
Rome. No ancient writer ever speaks of an Etruscan colony
at Rome. The only question now is, whether the Etruscans
extended their dominion at so early a period, that even in the
time of Tarquinius Priscus they were in possession of Tarquinii
and the neighbouring places, or wliether they did not begin to
appear about and beyond the Tiber till the sixtieth Olympiad.
Before we proceed to describe the changes which took place in
FOUNDATION OF CUMA. 63
those times, we must give the history of the Etruscans as far as it
is known, and add a sketch of the earliest constitution of Rome.
All we know of the history of Cuma is very obscure. Its
foundation is assigned to a period more remote than that of
any other Greek city in that district, which could not have
been done had not Cuma ceased at an early period to be a
Greek town and come into the hands of the Oscans, before
people in that country began to write Greek. All towns
undoubtedly had eras from their foundation, the fixed chrono-
logical data furnished by which were afterwards reduced to
Olympiads; for it was not till very late that the Greeks began
to reckon according to Olympiads. Timaeus (Olymp. 120 —
130) was the first who did so; Theophrastus did not. Now
where a town like Cuma was lost to the Greeks, they had no
trace of the era of its foundation, nor anything to take as a
guide except the genealogies of its ctistae (/cTio-Tat.) When
therefore, it was stated that this or that person had founded a
town, they ascended genealogically backward to Troy and the
heroes; and this is the reason why Cuma was thought to be
200 years older than the surrounding Greek towns: its era
had been lost very early, but it was certainly not older than
those of the other cities of similar origin. All that was known
about Cuma probably existed in Neapolitan chronicles, of
which Dionysivis made use. His description indeed of the
war waged by the Etruscans against Cuma is mythical, for the
Volturnus is said to have flowed back towards its source and
the like; but this is a secondary matter; Herodotus too is
mythical, when he describes the destruction of the Cartha-
ginian army which fought against Gelon, but the occurrence
of the war itself is not on that accoimt to be doubted. About
the sixty-fourth Olympiad, the Cumans were in their highest
prosperity and in possession of Campania; if therefore the
Etruscans besieged Cuma at that time, they must then have
been a conquering nation, a fact which beautifully agrees with
Cato's statement, that Capua existed only 260 years after its
foundation, meaning that it then became an Etruscan colony.
We thus obtain the period from 250 to 280 years after the
building of Rome (according to our common chronology) as
the time during which the Etruscans must have crossed the
Tiber. Between A.u. 220 and A.U. 230, Herodotus represents
Agylla as a town which consulted the oracle of Delphi; but
64 EARLY ETRUSCAN HISTORY.
that the Etruscans, who were so proud of their own religion,
should have done so, is wholly inconceivable, more especially
as there existed an inveterate hatred between Etruscans and
Greeks; hence the Romans received from the libri fatales
which were of Etruscan origin, the command to sacrifice a
Greek man and woman and a Gallic man and woman/* This
national hatred shews itself everywhere, as in Pindar and in
the Bacchic fable, where things are said of the Tyrrhenians
which must be referred to the Etruscans. The Etruscans
accordingly appear on the Tiber much later than is commonly
supposed; they gradually extended their sway, attained the
height of their power, maintained it for two generations, and
then declined with ever-increasing speed.
The early Etruscan history is scarcely known to us at all;
in Tuscany we find twelve towns, perfectly independent of
one another, yet at times united in common undertakings.
Each of these towns was governed according to custom by a
king, but there is no trace in any of the Italian nations of
hereditary monarchies such as we see in Greece; these towns
moreover formed no artificial confederacy, but a league some-
times arose spontaneously, when they were assembled for
common deliberation near the temple of Voltumna; they had
also one priest, who presided over the whole nation. It seems
probable — as the Romans did not understand the Etruscan
language, we must take their statements with great caution —
that in general enterprlzes one of the kings yyas chosen, whose
sovereignty the other towns recognised, and to whom they
gave np the ensigns of royalty ; but this distinction does not
appear to have always been the result of an election, the
supremacy being often assumed by some one town; thus
Clusium was the capital of Etruria in the war with Porsena.
Our historians conceive Rome to have stood in the same rela-
tion to these Etruscan towns, which arc said to have sent
to Tarquinius Prisons, or, according to others, to Servius
Tullius, the ivory throne and the kingly insignia. Keither
story is historically true, but it is an indication that under her
last kings Rome was at the head of a mighty empire, which
was much larger than in the first 160 years of the republic:
and of which Rome itself still preserves traces. It seems
to have been recognised as the capital more particularly in
•^ Liv. xxii. 57. It was not from the Sibylline books, as Plutarch says. — N.
THE VULSIXIAXS. 65
relation to Etriiria, but this is only a transitory circumstance
which may have been changed several times even under the
kings.
The Etruscans bear all the marks of an immigrating people,
and were probably not much more numerous than the Germans,
who at the beginning of the middle ages settled in Italy. The
towns possessed the sovereignty, and in the towns themselves,
the burghers. The territories of the towns were large but had
no influence; and it was this very oligarchical form of govern-
ment, which rendered Etruria weak by the side of Rome,
since arms could not be put into the hands of the people with-
out danger.
Dionysius, who very carefully gives us the exact expressions
of his authorities, says, that the magnates of the Etruscans
assembled with their clients for war. Among the Romans to
enlist the clients, was only a last resource when the plebeians
refused to go out to fight. Other circumstances also suggest
that Etruria was inhabited by clients under a territorial aristo-
cracy. During the advance of the Gauls, when the people on
the left bank of the Tiber deserted Rome, she attached to
herself those on the right bank ; Caere obtained the isopolity ;
and four new tribes were formed of those who during the war
had deserted Veii and Falerii." The historv of the insuri'ec-
tion of Yulsinii also shows the people in the condition of
subjects, as I have shewn in the first volimie of my Roman
history. The Vulsinians gave to their clients the constitution
of a plebs in order to Avard off the Romans; the plebs after-
wards crushed their former masters, and the latter then threw
themselves into the arms of the Romans, and allowed them to
destroy their town. Such an oligarchy existed everywhere,
whence we find so small a number of towns in Etruria, the
whole country from the Apennines to Rome containing no
more than twelve. The power of the nation therefore was
only in the first stage of its development; there was no con-
tinuous and growing life, nor any elements of a national
existence as among the Romans and Samnites, who evidently
did not oppress the old Oscan population, but became one
'' They were evidently not formed of tranafngcie, as Lhy says, but of wliolc
tribes which joined Rome in order to escape oppression; tliis is perfectly accord-
ing to analogy, for only two tribes were formed out of the Volscians, and the
same number also out of the Sabincs. — N.
VOL. T. F
66 THE ETRUSCANS A PRIESTLY PEOPLE.
with it and even adopted their language. The Lucanians, on
the other hand, who were a branch of the Sahines, stood in
quite a different relation to the ancient Oenotrians, for other-
wise the number of their citizens would have been very different
fi;oni that mentioned by Polybius. Opposite kinds of policy
in thersC cases bear opposite fruits. The insurrection of the
Bruttians was nothing else than a revolt in which the Oeno-
trians, who had been clients even under the Greeks, broke
their chains, when they came under new lords who treated
them still more harshly. The Etruscans, notwithstanding
their wealth and greatness, could not keep their ground against
the Romans ; their towns did not form a closely united state
like that of the Latins, nay, not even like that of the Achaeans,
and in the fifth century of Eome, most of them laid down
their arms after one or two battles; the only exception was
that very Vulsinii where the clients had been changed into a
plebs and which defended itself for thirty years. The Sara-
nites resisted Rome for seventy years, but the Lucanians for
only a very short time.
The Etruscans have been treated with great favour by the
moderns, but the ancients shewed them little respect. Among
the Greeks, very unfavourable reports were current about their
licentiousness and luxurious habits, although in regard to art,
justice was done them to some extent; the perfection of all
the mechanical parts of art and the old-fashioned forms had a
great charm ; the signa Tuscanica were as much sought after
in Rome as old pictures are now among ourselves.
The Etruscans were esteemed especially as a priestly people,
devoted to all the arts of prophecy, especially from meteoro-
logical and sidereal phenomena, and from the entrails of victims :
the art of discovering the future by augury was the peculiar
inheritance of the Sabellian people. All this must surely be
regarded as a wretched system of imposture. I will not deny
that the observations of lightning led the Etruscans to interest-
ing discoveries: they were aware of the lightnings which
flash forth from the earth, and which are now acknowledged
by naturalists, but were denied as late as thirty years ago. I
am noAv less than formerly inclined to believe that they were
acquainted with conductors of lightning; such knowledge
would not have been lost so easily ; moreover it is not said that
they attracted lightnings, but that thoy called them forth.
CAELES VIEENNA — MASTAIIXA. 67
In history, the Etruscans show themselves in anytliing but a
favourable light; they were unwarlike and prone to withdraw
from an impending danger by acts of humiliation, as in modern
times so many states have done between the years 1796 and
1813. The descriptions of their luxurious habits may be
exaggerated, but they are not without foundation; for nearly
two centuries they lived in the most profound peace under the
dominion of Rome and exempt from military service, except
in extraordinary emergencies, as in the Hannibalian war; and
it must have been during that period that they possessed
the unmense wealth and revelled in the luxuries of which
Posidonius spoke.
The Etruscans also had annals, of which the emperor Claudius
made use; and some few statements may have been taken from
them by Verrius Flaccus and Yarro. Their most celebrated
hero is Caeles Vibenna, who is the only historical point,
properly speaking, which we know in the history of the
Etruscans. Caeles Vibenna is said by some to have come to
Rome and to have settled on the Caelian hill ; but accordingr
to others, who followed the Etruscan traditions, he died in
Etruria, and his general, Mastarna, led the remnant of his
army to Rome, where he is said to have named the Caelian
hill after his own commander. Caeles always appears, in our
accounts^ as a condottiere, as an independent general of a
gathered host, unconnected with the towns, just like the Cata-
lonian hosts at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and
the East Indians in the eighteenth. His subsequent fortunes
are not known ; but the emperor Claudius states, from Etrus-
can books, that his faithful general, Mastarna, having gone to
Rome and settled on Mount Caelius, was received into the
Roman state under the name of Servius Tullius. This is
possible enough, whereas the Roman tradition about Servius
Tullius lies entirely within the sphere of the marvellous. The
god of fire, it is said, appeared to Tanaquil in the ashes on the
hearth, whereupon she ordered her maid to lock herself up
there in bridal attire; the maid became pregnant and gave
birth to Servius Tullius. As a sign of his descent from the
god of fire, his head was surrounded by a fiery halo whenever,
during his infancy, he was asleep; and in the conflagration of
a temple his wooden statue which was within remained unin-
jured. Conceited expositors have cautiously attempted to give
F 2
68 ETRUSCAN TRADITION.
to tins narrative also tlie appearance of history : many avIio
think his descent from a servant maid inconsistent, make him
the son of a noble of Corniculum, who is said to have died,
leaving behind him his wife in a state of pregnancy, in which
she was taken to the king's palace. Others say that his mother
indeed was a servant, but his father a king ; the fiery halo
also is interpreted as a symbol of his precocious mind; non
latuit scintilla ingenii in puero, as Cicero says. But the ancient
poets were in earnest and did not mean any such thing. We
have the choice; Ave may either leave the origin of Servius
Tullius in obscurity, or believe that the Etruscan traditions are
true. I am of opinion that Etruscan literature is so decidedly
more ancient than that of the Romans, that I do not hesitate
to give preference to the traditions of the former. As Tar-
quinius Priscus was represented to be an Etruscan, merely
because it was clear that there existed an Etruscan element at
Rome, which on account of his name was referred to Tarquin-
ius, so people described Servius Tullius as belonging to another
race, especially as Rome would not be indebted to an Etruscan
for the important reforms ascribed to this king. But as they
could not connect him with any distinct gens, they went back
to mythology and represented him like Romulus as the son of
a god, and like Numa as the husband of a goddess. The
mother is of no consequence to the son of a god.'' We cannot,
however, draw any further inferences; for the statement that
he was an Etruscan and led the remnant of Caeles Vibenna's
army to Rome is of no historical value. Livy speaks of a
war Avith Veii, but only in a hasty manner ; from which it is
evident he kncAv it to be a mere forgery in the Fasti.
In the tradition, Servius appears as a Latin who obtained
possession of the throne not even by a regular election : to him
are traced all the political laws, as all the religious laws are
to Numa, a proof that neither of them appeared as an historical
individual even to Livy. The gens Tullia, to Avhich Servius
must have belonged either by birth or by adoption, is expressly
mentioned as one of the Alban gentes that settled on the
* The above passage respecting the Etruscan origin'of Servms Tiillius belongs
to the lectures of the year 1826, but I was unwilhng to suppress it, although
further on (p. 99) we have a ditferent view, taken from the lectures of the yeai-
1828. The discussion licre introduced may be compared witli tliat in tlic Rom.
Hist. vol. i. p. ."^S"), etc., but the above is clearer and more definite. — Ed.
SERVIUS TULLIUS. 69
Caelius, and accordingly belonged to the Luceres; thus avc
have here a king of the third tribe, or, since this tribe was
closely connected with the commonalty, the throne is occupied
by one of the commons who is said to have come from Corni-
culum. He obtained the sovereignty without an election, but
was afterwards recognised by the curiae. Historical facts may
be embodied in this tradition ; but it is difficult to guess what
legal relations were intended to be expressed by this story.
Servius is important in three respects; he gave the city the
legal extent which it retained down to the time of the emperors,
though suburbs were added to it; he was the author of a
constitution in which the plebs took its place as the second
part of the nation; and he established an equal alliance with
the Latins, who previously had been either in a state of war
with, or of compulsory dependence on, Rome.
In these respects, Servius is so important that we cannot
help dwelling upon him. For the sake of greater clearness, 1
shall here treat of Tarquinius Prisons and Servius TuUius as if
they were historical personages, their names representing men
who though not known to us, really existed, and in fact serving
the same purpose as x, the symbol of an unknown magnitude
in mathematics; we shall thus, as I have already remarked,
start from the earliest appearance of Rome previously to the
change ascribed to Servius.
In its primitive form Rome was a town on the Palatine
surrounded by a wall and ditch, with a suburb and a Sabine
town on the Quirinal and the Tarpeian Hill. Rome grew out of
the union of the two towns whose imited citizens were subse-
quently designated by the common name of Romans. Servius
combined into one whole that which before was divided into
parts, and inclosed the city on all sides with fortifications and
walls no less than live miles in circumference. The accounts
of this wall and moat are not fables; the wall was perfectly
preserved as late as the time of Augustus and Pliny, so that
there was no room for fiction. Dionysius, who generally
derived his materials from books, cannot have been deceived
here, for he must have often seen the wall, it being a common
promenade for the Romans. Rome then, in the time of Ser-
vius, was a city as large as Athens after the Persian war, and
in our days would be accounted a place of considerable im-
portance.
70 CIVIC CONSTITUTIONS.
All modern states, with tlie single exception of tlie canton
of Schwyz, in tlieir governments and divisions have reference
to territorial circumstances. Each town is divided into districts
and wards; and in constitutional governments the representa-
tion is based upon these divisions; whoever lives in a district
elects and may be elected in it. But the ancients viewed the
soil only as the substi'atum of the state, which they were of
opinion existed in the individuals, so that certain associations
gave a different character to the relation in which individuals
stood to the state. Accordingly the state w^as divided into a
number of associations, each of which again consisted of several
families. Every one of these associations had its own assem-
blies, courts, religious rights, laws of inheritance and of other
matters. Whoever belonged to one transmitted these peculi-
arities to his children and wherever he might live, whether
within or without the state, he always belonged to that asso-
ciation. But those who did not belong to it by birth, could
be admitted only by a deviation from the rule, if the association
permitted it. A person might be admitted into the state with
all the rights which the ancients limited to the citizens as such,
the rights, for instance, of acquiring landed property and of
appearing in the courts of justice; and yet if he did not be-
long to an association, he was only a pale-burgher, that is, he
could not be invested with any office and was not allowed to
vote. This Avas the principle of the earliest states of antiquity,
the power of the state in this particular being limited to giving
civil rights, or the rights of a pale-burgher, the state could
not order an association to receive this or that individual as a
member. In many states even the associations themselves
had no power to admit a person, as, for example, where there
existed close castes, among which there was no right of inter-
marriage. Such an association, consisting of a number of
families, from which a person may withdraw, but into which he
either cannot be admitted at all or only by being adopted by the
whole association, is a gens.^ It must not be confounded with
OUT family, the members of which are descended from a com-
mon ancestor; for the patronymic names of the gentes are
nothing but symbols, and are derived from heroes. *° I assume
^ The German word is ein Geschlecht. See p. 71.
'" In wliat relates to the earliest times, antiipiities and history e.annot be en-
tirely separated ; the comnienturii pontijicum and also Li^■y and Dionysius set us
the example in this respect. — N.
THE KOMAN GENTES. 71
it is a fact which for the present requires no proof, that the
Roman division of the nation into gentes answered to the 7€V77
of the Greeks, and to the Geschlechter among our ancestors ; of
this postulate the sequel of my exposition will furnish sufficient
historical evidence. Let us first consider the nation respect-
ing which we have more satisfactory information, I mean the
Greeks. Their ^^evr] were associations which, notwithstandincr
their common name, are not to be regarded as families, de-
scended from the same ancestors, but as the descendants of those
persons who, at the foundation of tlie state, became united
into such a corporation. This is expressly stated by Pollux
(undoubtedly on the authority of Aristotle), who says that the
gennetae were named after the 76V7;, and that they were not
united by common origin {yevei /xev ov TrpoaiJKovre'i), but by
common religious observances {lepd). We, further, have the
testimony of Harpocration respecting the Plomeridae in Chios ;
for he says that they formed a 7eVo? which, according to the
opmion of those learned in such matters, had no connection
with Homer. These fyevr] moreover resemble the tribes of the
Arabs: the Beni Tai are a body of 10,000 famihes, all of
which cannot be descended from Edid Tai ; in like manner,
the clans of the Highlanders of Scotland were named after
individuals, but regarded themselves as their relatives and
descendants only in a poetical sense: there were no fewer than
5000 Campbells capable of bearing arms, who looked upon
the Duke of Argyle as their cousin.
With regard to the Eoman gentes we have no direct testi-
mony like that of Pollux and Harpocration, that they were
corporations without relationship; if we possessed Verrius
Flaccus, we should undoubtedly learn something definite, but
there is an important definition in Cicero^s Topica: he there
mentions the term gentiles as a difficult term to define, and it
had become so, because time had wrought various changes in
the original constitution of the gentes ; in the tune of Cicero
they had lost much of their former importance, and courts of
justice had pronounced decisions respecting them. Cicero says :
Gentiles sunt qui inter se eodem nomine sunt. Non satis est. Qui
ab ingenuis oriundi sunt. Ne id qiiidem satis est. Quorum majormn
nemo servitutem servivit. Abest etiam nunc. Qui capite non sunt
deminuti. Hoc fortasse satis est. According to this, then, the
Scipios and Sullas were gentiles^ for they were eodem nomine, etc.
72 THE KOMAN GENS.
Supposing a Cornelius had been assigned as a nexus, or been
condemned to death on account of some crime, he would there-
by have ceased to be a member of his gens, and have incurred
what the English in feudal language termed a corruption of
Mood. If as an addictushe had children, they too were cut off,
and did not belong to the gens. The addition quorum ma-
jorum nemo servitutem servivii excludes all libertini and their
descendants, although they bore the gentile name of their
patronus ; but all peregrini might of course by common consent
be admitted. The latter point, however, is probably an addi-
tion which was foreign to the ancient gentile law ; for in my
opinion there was at first no difference at all in regard to freed-
men, they as well as the patrons belonged to the gens; but
this was controverted, as we learn from the interesting suit of
the patrician and plebeian Claudii (the IMarcelli) about the
property of a deceased freedman." On that occasion^ it was
a res judicata by the comitia of the centuries, that the patrician
Claudii could not succeed to the property in dispute; whence
was afterwards derived the doctrine that the libertini did not
belong to the gens.
Now in this definition there is not a single word about a
common origin, a point which'could not have been over-looked ;
and hence it follows that the Roman gentes were of the same
nature as the Greek 'yevrj. Genus and gens are moreover quite
the same word; similar variations often occur in the ancient
language, as cliens and clientus^'^, Campans^^ and Campanus,
and so also Romans and Romanus. The genitives Romanum
and Romanom are formed from the old contracted nominative.
It was a peculiarity of the institution of gentes, that the
state was divided by legislation into a fixed number of associa-
tions, each forming in itself a small state, with many peculiar
rights ; it is possible that the expressions jus gentium and jura
gentium originally signified something else, and something far
more extensive than we understand by them. The number of
the gentes is always found to bear so peculiar a relation to the
state, that it can never have been the result of chance. In
Attica there were 360, a number which the grammarians very
" It is mentioned in Cicero, De Oratore.
'* I have not been able to discover the form clientus, but the feminine clientu
justifies us in assumini; the existence of a masculine in us. — En.
" Nonius, 486. 24 ; Campus, Plant. Tri7i. ii. 4. 144 ed. Liud.— Ed.
THE TRIBES. 73
correctly refer to the division of the year or of the circle
The same thing occiu's in Germany: at Cologne there were
three orders, each containing fifteen gcntes; at Florence their
number was thrice twenty-four, and in Dithmarsch thrice ten.
Now at Rome there were probably thrice one hundred gentes,
that is, three tribes each containing one hundred gentes,
whence Livy calls them centuriae, not tribus. Between the
division into tribes and that into gentes there usually existed
another,which was called in Greece cjipaTpat, and at Rome curiae,
answering to the orders at Cologne and to the classes in the
Lombard towns. These curiae were parts of a tribe, but com-
prised several gentes, probably always ten, for common religious
purposes. As each gens had its own gentiUcian sacra — for
sacra familiarum, which are sometimes mentioned by modern
writers, did not exist among the Romans, — the membership
of a curia implied special religious duties, and conferred the
right of voting in the assemblies of the people. The ancients
did not vote as individuals but as corporations, whence it was
customary at Athens from the earliest times, to levy armies
and to vote according to i^lnjlae (tribes) four of which might
be out-voted by six, although the number of individuals con-
tained in the six might be much smaller than that of the four.
The Romans went even further, as they did not vote according
to tribes but according to curiae, the reason evidently being that
at first the Ramnes and Tities alone were the ruling citizens ;
and to allow only these two to vote, would have given rise to
difficulties, since it might easily have happened, that one tribe
wished a thing which the other rejected, whereby collisions
would have been produced. But as each tribe was subdivided
into curies, and the votes were given according to this division,
that difficulty was removed, and one curia might decide a
question; this regulation therefore was necessary previously to
the admission of the third tribe to a share in the government.
At a later time, we find that the order in which the curiae
voted and the praerogativa were determined by lot, an arrange-
ment which cannot have existed at first, since the Lucercs as
well as the two others might thereby have been chosen to strike
the key-note. In this we have a glimpse of the innumerable
stages through which the Roman constitution passed in its
development ; and it was this very gradual development which
secured so long a duration to Roman liberty. The secret of
74 THE CURIAE.
great statesmen, who are met with as rarely as any other kind
of great men, is the gradual development and improvement of
the several parts of an actual constitution ; they never attempt
to raise an institution at once to perfection.
Thus the curiae stepped into the place of the tribes. In the
reign of Tarquinius, the third tribe, composed of the gentes
mijiores, was admitted to the full franchise. The gentes are
so essential a part of the constitution, that the expressions were
gentes civium major es and minor es, just as gentes civium patriciac
was the solemn expression for patricii. It is related that the
senate, which till then had consisted of two hundred members,
was increased by Tarquinius to three hundred by the admission
of the gentes minores. This can mean nothing else than that
he gave to the third tribe the full franchise, and admitted into
the senate a number of persons corresponding to that of the
gentes, for such is the natural course of things. At Cologne
too, the second and third orders obtained access to offices later
than the first. What Tarquinius did, was a great change in
the constitution, which was thus completed for the first populiis.
The third tribe, however, was not at once placed on a footing
of perfect equality with the others, its senators being called
upon to vote when those of the two other tribes had already
done so; and there can be no doubt that their curies also were
not permitted to vote imtil after the others. As regards the
priestly offices, the members of the third tribe were admitted
only to the college of the vestals. Wherever we find dmimviri,
they must be regarded as the representatives of the first two
tribes; triumviri do not occur till a later period, and wherever
they are patricians, they represent the three tribes. They are,
however, often plebeian, and in this case are connected with
the plebeian constitution, which I shall describe afterwards.
LECTUEE VI.
It is one of the most widely spread peculiarities of the earlier
ages, and one of which traces have existed nearly down to our
own days, that a distinction was made between the ancient and
original citizens and those that were subsequently added
THE PLEBES. 75
to them. This distinction was inconsistent with the notions
entertained in the eighteenth century, and has nearly every-
where been abolished. In the United States of America the
native population is extremely small; the office of presi-
dent indeed can be filled only by a native, but in nearly every
other respect it is perfectly indifferent how long a person
has been in the country : and no distinction is made between
the descendants of the first colonists and persons who have
just settled there. In antiquity, on the other hand, admission
to the franchise was every where more or less difficult, whe-
ther the stranger spoke a different language or belonged
to the same nation or even to the same tribe of the nation.
In nations divided into castes, the admission is quite impossible,
though the law is occasionally modified to favour a wealthy
or powerful individual, as in the case of a Rajah who became a
Brahmin on condition of his causing a colossal golden cow to be
made, large enough to allow him to creep in at one end and out at
the other. In some parts of the world, even at this day, a stranger
is prevented from performing civil acts, and from obtaining offices.
The earliest constitution concerning which we have authentic in-
formation, though it is in part very obscure, is that of the Jews.
They too had such a division ; the nation consisted of ten tribes
with unequal rights, corresponding to the tribes of the Romans;
beside them stood those who had been admitted into the com-
munity of the Lord, that is the strangers. The Pentateuch
expressly states that some nations were admissible, others not.
The persons thus admitted into the community formed a
multitude of people, who by religious consecration had become
related to the Jews, but were neither contained in the tribes
nor shared their rights. In later times, when the Jewish con-
stitution becomes better known to us fforn contemporary records,
the population is divided into Jews and Proselytes, and the
latter again into Proselytes of righteousness and Proselytes of
the gate.^ The former had politico-civil rights but were ex-
cluded from civil honours; they might acquire land, make
wills, many Jewesses and the like. The Proselytes of the
gate were obliged to conform to the Jewish rites and were
' These points connected with the second temple have been discussed by no
one but tlic gi'cat Selden, without whom I sliould know nothing about them, since
the Rabbinical language and literature are unknown to nie. bclden's reputation
has very much decreased, at least in Germany; but it ought not to be so. — N.
76 THE CLIENITES,
not allowed to act contrary to the ceremonial law, lest they
might give offence to the Jews; but they did not participate
in civil rights like the inhabitants of the country.
The same institutions, though obscurely described, existed
in all the Greek constitutions : much that is untenable has been
written about them, but if once rightly understood they furnish
a key to all ancient constitutions. In Greece, there existed
from the earliest times, by the side of the sovereign body of
citizens, an assembly of native freemen who enjoyed civil rights,
but had not everywhere the connubium with the ruling people;
they were protected by the state and might appear in the
courts of justice, but had no share in the government. The
condition of foreigners, freedmen and slaves, who had no
civil rights was quite different, they being protected against
injustice and oppression by taking a citizen as their guardian
or patron. It was a very general notion that on the one hand
a person might be a native and yet exercise civil rights only to
a certain degree, and, on the other, that a stranger had no civil
rights at all.
The body of Koman citizens was now extended ; it was
originally an aristocracy, only inasmuch as the subject people
who lived in the neighbourhood stood to those citizens in the
relation of clients, for otherwise no aristocratic relation is per-
ceptible. But when Sabine and Latin communities became
united with Rome in such a manner as to obtain full civil
rights and to be obliged to serve in the armies, there arose a
class of persons who, in our German cities, were called Pfahl-
b'drger (Pale-burghers), an expression which no one has cor-
rectly and clearly understood-. In Germany the word Paid
or Pfnhl (Engl, pale ; in Ireland the counties about Dublin are
said to be within the English pale) signified the district in the
immediate vicinity of a city; the free people who inhabited it
did not in reality possess the rights of burghers, which were
peculiar to the gentes {Geschlechtei')^ but merely civil rights.
The word was then gradually extended and applied to those
strangers also, who attached themselves to a country or city
(the Greek Isopolitcs). The investigation of this subject,
Avhich is perfectly analogous to the origin of the Roman
plebes, has given me much trouble, because in the sixteenth
' Schiltcr on Konigshovcu has some good leniarks upon it.— N.
THE COMMONALTY. 77
century those relations died away, and no accounts^ of them
are any where to be found. In the fifteenth century the word
Pfaldbilrger still occurs; but in the sixteenth it is nearly obso-
lete. J. V. JMuller did not understand it, and used it without
attaching to it any definite idea. AVlaen a country district, or
a town, or a knight, established such a connection with a city,
two consequences followed; first they mutually protected one
anotlier in their feuds, and the strangers with their vassals
might remove to the city where their civil rights were perfect-
ly free, and where they also had their own courts of justice;
but they did not form part of the ruling body ; and in this
respect they were distinguished from the gentes or Geschlechter,
who exercised the sovereignty. Many Transtiberine commu-
nities, both Latin and Sabine, entered into this relation with
Rome, and formed settlements, especially on the Aventine. In
describing this, the Roman historians speak as if Ancus had
removed those people from their homes and given them settle-
ments at Rome, a state of things which is inconceivable ; ;. for
all the country around Rome was previously occupied, so that
there they could not settle, and therefore they would have
been obliged to take up their abodes at a distance of many
miles from their fields. It is very possible, however, that a
few of the highest rank were obliged to settle at Rome,
This pale-burghers' right was extended further and further:
the multitude which enjoyed it did not yet form a corporation,
but contained all the elements of one ; they became so nume-
rous at Rome and in the surrounding country, especially
through the alliance with Latium under Servius Tullius, that
the pale-burghers far surpassed the ancient population in
numbers, formed the main strength of Rome, and were especi-
ally employed in war. With their increase, the decrease of
the burghers who married only among themselves kept pace.
In this manner arose the Roman plebes, in Greek Sfj/xo^,
and, as we call it, the commonalty. The demos comprised all
those who had the lower franchise, and therefore owed oblio-a-
tions to the state, but had no rights except their personal
freedom. Thus the same relation is expressed by the words
S^/A09 and TToXirai, as by plehes and populus, or commonalfij and
burghers^ or lastly commune and cittadini? I further believe
' These relations were so familiar to our ancestors, that in the old translation
of Livy published atMaycnce,/JO/)«/«s is throughout translated by Gcschlechter ,
78 CITIZENSHIP.
that originally tlic city was not called TroXt? but acrrv : TrdXt? like
populus is a Tyrrhenian word, and both have the same mean-
ing, populus being formed by reduplication from ttoXi?- The
commonalty was the principal part of the population in all
states as far as numbers are concerned; but its development
did not take place in antiquity in the same manner as in the
middle ages. In the latter, the commonalty lived within the
walls of a city ; and they often, as was the case at Geneva,
settled around the city {cite or the nucleus of a town) , in what
was called bourg, horgo or suburbs, and were thence called
bourgeois. These suburbs in the course of time were fortified
and obtained equal rights with the cities. In Germany the
case was the same, the name only being different, for burghers
and Geschlechterare identical, and towns were formed, especial-
ly after the tenth century, when peace had been restored to
the world. "Wherever in Gaul a civitas existed from the time
of the Eomans, it was called a cite; and where there was a
royal villa, it often happened that a place sprung up in the
vicinity under the protection of the king, and under the ad-
ministration of the king's major domus. This is the original
meaning of ville, as contradistinguished from cite. Hence in
French towns a distinction is made between la cite, la ville
and le bourg. Where the commonalty sprang up within the
walls, it had quite difterent elements. Throughout the Ger-
manic states, strangers were, on the whole, more kindly
treated than in ancient times or in France. The free settlers
in the small Swiss cantons, as inUri for example, were in reality
oppressed commonalties; the inhabitants of St. Gervais were
subjects of Geneva. Among the Slavonic nations, as at Novo-
gorod, such settlers were called guests, and their condition was
in many respects easier than that of the natives. In France,
down to the time of the revolution, strangers were not able to
make a will, and according to the droit d'Aubaine, the sove-
reign succeeded to their property if they were not naturalised.
The same law also existed in England, where to this day
and plehes l>y commonaUy. There we meet with expressions such as this:
" T. Quinctius was elected burgomaster from the Geschkchfer and L. Genuciiis
from the commonalti/," where Livy lias populus and pJebes. Tiiis iinsopliisticatcd
way of viewing things is the reason why the men of the sixteenth century,
though without the learning wliich we require, yet comprehended many things
quite correctly. It is only a few weeks since I found tin's out. — N.
GUILDS. 79
foreigners cannot acquire landed property. In all the towns
of the middle ages in which commerce was the principal
occupation, the commonalty soon formed itself into guilds,
which obtained their own presidents, and masters of the guild,
as well as their own laws and courts: penal jurisdiction could
be granted by the kings alone, and wherever it was exercised
the guilds took part in it. The masters of the guilds at first
appeared in the council only for the purpose of taking care
that their rights were not trespassed upon; but they soon
became members of the council and finally obtained the upper
hand. This is clearly seen in the Italian towns, as, for in-
stance, in the seven ancient guilds at Florence. Durino- the
feuds of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, the burghers were still
the masters; but soon after, about the time of Eudolph of
Hapsburg, the guilds everywhere had the ascendancy, in Italy
in the thirteenth, and in Germany about the middle of the
fourteenth century^ as at Zurich, Augsburg, Strasburg, Ulm,
Heilbronn, and the imperial cities of Suabia. During the
period of transition, the burghers shared the government with
the guilds ; wherever this was done , the union was brought
about peaceably; but where the burghers refused, it was
effected by a bloody contest, which mostly ended in the
destruction of the burghers, though the case was sometimes
reversed, as at Nlirnberg, where the guilds were oppressed.
The union of the burghers and the commonalty or guilds
was called in Greece iroXcreia, in Italy popolo, the meaning of
which is somewhat different from the Roman populvs^ The
distinction between the burghers and the commonalty went
so far, that at Florence, for example^ in the palazzo vecchio,
and also on books, one sees a lily as the armorial bearing of the
city, by the side of a red cross on a silver ground as that of
the commonalty iil commune). The expression il commune
may very easily mislead; it does not denote the union between
the two orders, but the commonalty, a fact to Avhich Savigny
has directed my attention; at Bologna there is a palatkan
civium and a palatium communis. The Capitano del popolo and
the Capitano di parte at Florence are likewise difficult to un-
derstand. During the struggle between the Guelfs and
Ghibellines, the Capitano di parte, that is, of the Guelfian
■• The investigations into the histoiy of the Italian towns which I liave made,
throw great h'ght upon the whole development of the Roman constitution. — N.
80 BURGHERS.
party, drove the Gliibcllines from the city : he was placed at
the head of affairs, and the franchise of the others was suspend-
ed. The only Capitano of the burghers was now nevertheless
called di parte.
Among the ancients, on the other hand, it was not the
guilds within the walls that formed the commonalty, but the
inhabitants of the country around the city, which consisted of
different elements and embraced both the noblest and the low-
est. It is therefore a most preposterous notion, that the
plebes consisted of the poorer classes only. This error was
caused by the imperfection of the language, such as it appears
even in the writings of Plato and Aristotle, for the Greeks
had only one word hr)p,o<i to designate the burghers, the com-
monalty, the union of both and, in short, the whole people as
well as the populace, in contradistinction to the rulers.
Dionysius knew the word Sr)fio<i only as opposed to /SouA,^,
and 6)(Xo<i is the proper term for the mass of poor people.
But even he is not free from misconception, which he trans-
ferred to Roman history, and as he is much more minute than
Livy, in describing these relations, he has led the restorers of
ancient history to adopt quite erroneous notions. Livy too
does not see clearly into the matter, but he has many passages,
from which it is evident that the annalists whom he followed
had taken the right view. A further cause of confusion
arose from the distress and debts which are often mentioned
as prevailing among the plebes, which, however, as we shall
hereafter sec, must be referred to debts arising solely from
mortgages of landed proprietors. The plebes was distinct
from and opposed to the populus ; the Romans in general
divided all the fundamental powers in nature, as well as in the
realm of spirits, into two parts, describing them as male and
female; for example Vulcan and Vesta are fire, Janus and
Jana the heavenly lights of sun and moon, Saturn and Ops
the creative power of the earth, Tcllumo and Tellus the earth
as firm ground ; and in like manner, the complete state con-
sists o^ populus and plebes, which together constitute the whole.
Within the territory of the ancient city, which extended
about five miles on the road towards Alba, and the limits of
which can be very accurately fixed, there ^ lived under the
* I am sorry thdt I did not find this out while I waf5 in Italy, for I had often
been where that limit must have existed, without noticing it. It was not till
THE PLEBES. 81
protection of the populus a number of clients {cluentes, from
cluere, to listen). It was owing to a great variety of circum-
stances, tliat these clients came to be connected with their
patrons, in the same manner as vassals were with their feudal
lords, so as to be obliged to ransom them from captivity, to
provide dowries for their daughters, and to defend them in all
cases of need and danger. Some of them may have been
ancient native Siculians, who being subdued by the Cascans
undertook those feudal obligations in order that their lives
might be spared; strangers may have settled in the Eoman
territory as aliens and have chosen a Eoman citizen as their
guardian ; some also may have been inhabitants of those places
which were obliged to take refuge under the supremacy of
Rome; slaves lastly who received their freedom stood to their
former masters in the relation of clients. This class of per-
sons must have been ever on the increase, so long as Rome was
in a flourishing condition. The asylum in the ancient tradition
must be referred to the clientela, for the clients had actually
come together from all parts. But the free commonalties
inhabiting the country districts were quite different: their
origin was traced to the times of Aucus. Scaliger, by one of
the most brilliant discoveries, found out that Catullus calls the
Romans ffens Romulique Ancique, where Romulus represents
the burghers and Ancus the commonalty. The plebes now
gradually increased, partly by the extension of the Roman
dominion, and partly by the circumstance that, when a family
of buro-hers became extinct and its former clients were "svithout
a feudal lord, they attached themselves to the commonalty;
many also joined the plebes in consequence of the alliances of
Rome with free towns. Such relations, however, are in their
origin imperfect, but become more and more clearly developed
in the course of time: at first they were entirely local, and
es like Tellcne, Ficana, and Politorum, were undoubtedly
at first quite isolated and without any regularly organised power.
There can be no doubt, that a populus and a plebes existed in all
the towns of Italy and also in the Greek colonies of southern
Italy and Sicily, the constitution of which bears a strong-
resemblance to that of the Italian states, and sometimes even
adopted the same names.
last year that by a simple combination and with the assistance of Fabretti's map
of the neighbom-hood of Home I made the discoveiy. — N.
VOL. I. G
82 THE PLEBEIAN TRIBES.
LECTURE VII.
Previously to the time of Servius Tullius, tlie country about
Rome was not united with the state, at least probably united
only tlirough the king, that is, the inhabitants were obliged to
obey the government, but were otherwise treated as perfect
strangers ; they did not even possess the commercium, that is,
no patrician could acquire landed property in the country
districts any more than a plebeian could at Rome. The same
regulation has existed in many countries down to recent times,
so that the landed property of a peasant could never be acquired
by a nobleman: a very wise and salutary regulation, which
unfortunately has been abolished, in consequence of the
erroneous belief that It was a foolish restriction. It is still
less conceivable that the plebeians should have possessed the
legal right of contracting marriages with the patricians; the
children of such marriages In all cases followed the baser side.
The Mensian law^ did not Invent this, but was merely a re-
enactment, determining more minutely what was to be done
in difficult cases. But there now appeared a legislator, who,
on the one hand, gave to the commonalty a constitution which
was complete in Itself, and, on the other, devised forms by
which this commonalty became united with the whole body of
burghers. The former part of his legislation has been entirely
overlooked, and the latter appeared quite mysterious to Livy
and DIonysIus; so great had been the change of aifalrs since
the days of Fabius, who still had a correct view of these
matters, though only two hundred years had elapsed from his
time. Let him who thinks that this Is impossible, look around
himself: I believe that In this town [Bonn] there are not three,
and at Cologne not ten persons, who can state precisely what
the, constitutions of these towns were two or three hundred
years ago, nay, not even what they were previously to the
year 1794. Of this fact I satisfied myself In 1808, In con-
versation with a Frieslander who had devoted himself to
historical pursuits, but was unable to give me any account of
the constitution of his country before the French revolution.
The same is the case at Brussels. In countries where the
' Ulpian, Fragm. v. 8. -Ed.
DIVISIONS OF THE CITY OF ROME. 83
constitution has been as little changed as in England, it is
easier to trace one's way back from the present to the past. It
is scarcely credible how great a change two hundred years
may bring about, and how distant the whole mode of thinking
and living seems to be, when separated from us by some great
event. Such was the case in Germany after the seven years' war :
all German literature previous to that event presents to our
minds a character of strangeness, whereas that of the period
immediately succeeding seems to us as if it were more or less
of yesterday. Such a crisis in literature and in the entire mode
of thinking had taken place at Rome through the influence of
Cicero; so that Livy, Virgil, and Horace, must have thought
the authors of the preceding period as strange as we think
those who wrote before Lessing and Goethe. The Julian law
likewise had so completely changed many circumstances in the
civil rights of the Latin allies, that the recollection of the
preceding state of things was entirely obliterated. The new
constitution was simple, and the ancient complicated institutions
were no longer intelligible. Thus it becomes evident — and
I beg of you to mark this well — that even ingenious and
learned men like Livy and Dionysius did not comprehend the
ancient institutions, and yet have preserved a number of ex-
pressions from their predecessors, from which we, with much
labour and difficulty, may elicit the truth.
The statement of Dionysius, derived from Fabius, that
Servius divided the city and the country, forming the territory
of Rome into thirty tribes, is an instance of what I mean. The
division of such a territory was topical : it was not a peculia-
rity of the Romans, V but is also found in Greece, where
Cleisthenes took the ager Atticus as the basis for the division of
the Attic nation. The whole was divided into a fixed number
of parts; and in order to eifcct this, the legislator did not
count the large towns, but took a convenient number, such as
one hundred, into which the country was to be divided, so
that some large places were cut up into parts, while smaller
ones were combined into one. These divisions according to a
fixed number were so universal among the Romans, that when
Augustus divided the city into fourteen regions he did not
count the vici^ but assigned a definite number of vici to each
region. Now the legislator whom we call Servius TuUius
divided the city of Rome in so far as it was inhabited by pale-
G 2
,84 PEASANT ASSOCIATIONS.
burgliers, into four, and tlie territory around it into twenty-six
regions. This must be looked upon as true : but to prove that
this statement of Fabius is correct would lead me too far.
Here it must be observed, that the existence of a populns nearly
always presupposes the existence of a plebes as its counterpart,
and accordingly a plebes, though unimportant, must have ex-
isted even before the time of Ancus. Each of the three towns,
Roma, Quirium, and Lucerum, had its own commonalty; these
commonalties and the settlers on the Esquiliae under Ancus
form the four city tribes; the first or Palatina corresponds to
the Palatine, the second or Collina to the Quirinal, the third or
Suburana to the Caelius, tlie Carinae and Subura, and the
fourth or Esquilina to the Esquiline and Viminal. This
arrangement must have been made before the building of the
wall of Servius Tullius, as is clear from the existence of the
Esquilina. The division was purely geographical, and not at
all connected with certain families ; the territory was the basis,
60 that the inhabitants of a certain district formed an associa-
tion of peasants (Bauernschaften). It cannot surprise us to
find such associations of peasants within the city, for at Ant-
werp some of the streets of the extended city are still called by
a name {Burschafteii) which indicates that originally they were
inhabited by associations of peasants which formed themselves
by the side of the ancient city. Such a division resembles
our political divisions based on locality and domicile, but there
is this diiference, that ours are not permanent: so long as, e.g.
I live at Bonn, I am a citizen of Bonn, but I should cease to
be so if I were to remove to Cologne. When this division
was made at Rome, every one received a name from the region
in which he lived, but when he changed his abode he did not
thereby cease to belong to the local tribe corresponding to the
region in which he and his descendants were registered. I do
not mean to say that a change was impossible, but all important
changes belong to a time when the tribes had acquired quite
a different and much greater importance than they had at first.'
During the first generation, matters may have remained as they
were established by the legislator, but in the course of time
changes m.ust have taken place, as people did not always
continue to reside in the same district.
' In the canton Schwyz, likewise, the country people were di^ndcd into four
quarters, in which they were enrolled and of which they remained members
although they might take up their abode in another quarter. — N.
VICI AND PAGI. 85
The names of the country tribes were originally derived not
from the districts but from heroes, who were eponymes both for
the tribes and the burghers; for it is evidently the object of
this legislation to amalgamate the different elements of the
people ; and the recollection of former times, when those places
had been independent, was to be effaced by the thought that
they were Eomans. They obtained common sacra like the
tribes of the burghers, as is expressly mentioned by Dionj^sius,
for in antiquity sacred rites were always a bond of union. The
fact of the plebeian tribes having sacra is also established by
the circumstance, that Tarqiiinius Superbus expressly forbade
them. Every tribe or region in the city was subdivided into
vici and those of the country into pagi, and each of these vici
or pagi had its own magistrate^ as every tribe had its trihunus.
Reo-ulations of the same kind were in force at Athens; when,
for example, a person was enrolled at Acharne and removed
to Sunium, he still remained an Acharnian. As these tribes
in the earliest times all possessed equal privileges, there was no
motive for wishing to be enrolled in another tribe; but after-
wards when there arose a difference of political rank among
the tribes, of which I shall speak hereafter, matters were
changed; the city tribes became inferior to the country tribes,
and to be removed from the latter to the former was a nota
ignonmiiae, a practice which may be dated from the censorship
of Fabius Maximus. The tribes contained only plebeians, the
patricians being comprised in the curies which also included
their clients, ^^^len a person became a Roman citizen with-
out the suffrage, he was not received into a plebeian tribe, nor
was it possible to be admitted by isopolity or by manvimission,
and consequently he could not be invested with any office, nor
vote in the assembly. The qualification for voting in a ple-
beian tribe consisted in being a landed proprietor and agri-
culturist; whoever supported himself by any other occupation
was excluded.
In this manner the legislator constituted the two corporations
of the patricians and plebeians : he might have united them in
two assemblies, as in modern states, but this was impracticable
in those early times, as the two corporations regarded each
other with hostile feelings. In order to effect an accommoda-
tion, Servius created the centuries, like the concilio grande at
Venice, in which, as soon as they entered the hall, all were
86 THE CENTURIES.
equal, poor or rich, every one being in simple attire. The
object of the centuries was to unite the patricians and plebeians,
as well as those who sprang up by the side of the latter and
occupied their former position ; and at the same time to exclude
those who had no landed property, and could therefore give no
guarantees to the state. The centuries accordingly contained
the whole of the first estate ; of the second, those who had the
right of voting; of the third, those whose property was equal
to that of the second ; and lastly, persons engaged in certain
honourable occupations. The statements of Livy and Diony-
sius have caused great confusion in this part of Koman history,
as they conceived the tribes differed only in rank and property ;
they believed that the old citizens, that is the patricians, were
divided into curies and were perfectly equal among themselves,
but they imagine that this was an oppressive democracy which
Servius Tullius abolished by the introduction of the centuries.
It is the same error as that into which Sismondi has fallen,
who fancies that the Italian towns, on their first appearance in
history, were under a democratic government: a monstrous
mistake ! Had the Roman historians attentively studied the
ancient law-books, these things certainly could not have re-
mained obscure to them ; but after all, we ourselves have not
fared bettcri, for it is now scarcely fifty years since Moser pub-
lished his first works, stimulated by which we have at length
begun to have a clear perception of the early institutions of
our own country.
LECTURE VIII.
According to the primitive institutions, the burghers' served
not only on horseback, as was the case afterwards, but also on
foot; the same was originally the case in the German cities.
These burghers at first had nothing in common with a nobility.
We may assume that each gens furnished one horseman and
ten foot soldiers; hence the statement in Plutarch that the city
' The German word here is ein Gescldcrhtci, which in early times, as in the
Chroniule of Cologne, denotes a person belonging to a Geschkchl. — N.
THE ROMAN INFANTRY. 87
at first consisted of about a thousand families. This looks very
historical, but such additions, as about and the like, in Plutarch,
Dionysius and other writers of later times, are meant as soft-
eners of colours which appear to them too glaring ; the
statement is indeed very ancient, but is a symbolical representa-
tion of a legal relation rather than an historical fact. Rome
in the earliest times contained one hundred gentes, and conse-
quently one thousand foot soldiers, each of whom was consi-
dered to have been furnished by a family.^ Along with
these the country districts sent their contingents, which were
probably levied according to the townships. The new legisla-
tion reformed the phalanx, exempted the burghers from the
obligation to serve on foot, and made them serve on horseback
with particular privileges. As the whole burthen of forming
the infantry now devolved upon the commonalty or plebeians,
corresponding privileges were granted to them, and thereby
also the means of maintaining their freedom. Thus the popu-
lation was divided into cavalry and infantry, the commonalty,
however, not being excluded from the former. The infantry
of all European nations in ancient times resembled the Greek
phalanx. It was a mass which produced its effects by its irre-
sistible onset: the men were armed with pikes, with which
they advanced against the enemy in eight, ten, or twelve ranks.
Barbarians did not fight in close masses, and the Asiatics were
only archers. When, as at Rome, the soldiers were drawn up
ten men deep, those in the rear were of course less exposed
and did not require the same protection as those in front:
when they properly closed their shields they needed no coat of
mail, and the last rank not even greaves. Some also were
light troops or slingers, who threw lead and stones. Every
one in the infantry was obliged to equip himself at his own
expense and in proportion to his property, the wealthier hav-
ing to provide themselves with full armour, while those of
small means were only required to serve as slingers. When
a war was protracted, gaps arose, and after an unsuccessful bat-
tle, the first lines might be much thinned, so that a complement
became necessary: in such circumstances those standing be-
hind put on the armour of the slain, and stepped into their
places. In all campaigns, however, there was also a reserve in
case of need. These were the three elements of the Roman
^ I have neglected to explain this in my history. — N.
88 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ARMY.
army: the legion properly so called, the light-armed, and lastly
the reserve, which took the place of those who had advanced
from the hindmost lines to supply the place of those who had
fallen in front.
Servius thus regarded the whole nation, populus and plebes,
as an army, exercitus vocatus ; but when this army marched
against an enemy, it further required carpenters to build
bridges, erect tents, and the hke, and musicians; the former
were constituted as one, and the latter as two centuries; and
this addition really completed the army or classis.^ These three
centuries did not consist of plebeians, for no plebeian was al-
lowed to engage in any other occupation than agriculture; if
he did, he renounced his order, and the censors erased his
name from his tribe (capitis deminutiu), which, however, was
not originally attended with any disgrace. There existed at
Rome from the earliest time certain guilds, the institution of
which was ascribed to Numa: their number was three times
three, pipers, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, saddlers, tanners,
coppersmiths, potters; and the ninth included all other kinds of
artificers. The object of this undoubtedly was, to give to the
city trades a corporative existence, as in the middle ages; but,
as the persons contained in these centuries were usually freed-
men and foreigners, the object of whose ambition was to quit
these associations and become enrolled in a tribe, the guilds
never attained any high degree of prosperity. At Corinth
they were of greater importance. By this division into centu-
ries, the plebeians were connected both with the patricians and
the aerarians ; carpenters and musicians, who were of so much
consequence in war, had special centuries assigned to them,
whereby they obtained the same rights as would have belonged
to them if they had served in the army as plebeians. The
carpenters, in consideration of their importance, were ranked
with the first class, and the musicians with the fifth.
Lastly Servius also took notice of those free people who did
not belong to the commonalty. Many of them undoubtedly
entered the service either by compulsion or of their own accord ;
' In the account of the buttle of Fidcnac, Livy is much puzzled by this word :
the ancient annalist had the phra.se classibus certare, which Li\'y mistook for
fleets, and hence he expresses a doubt as to the possibility of an engagement be-
tween two fleets in the narrow river Tiber; but the phrase merely meantabattlo
between two armies in full armour. — N.
SUB-DIVISION OF THE PLEBS. 89
for I cannot believe that the capite censi and the proletarii did
not perform any service at all ; they did not fight against the
enemy, but served only in the baggage train, as lixae and
calories, who there is no reason for supposing were always
slaves.
Servius thus had a perfectly organised army, which with the
addition of the cavalry he made the representative of the nation.
He composed the cavalry of the three ancient double tribes or
six centuries of Tarquinius Priscus, and to them he added
twelve other centuries of the plebes, consisting of the most
distinguished persons of the commonalty. Those six centuries
comprised the entire patrician order, which on the whole cer-
tainly had a small number of votes, but as we shall hereafter
see, it had a preponderance in other respects: among them
there was perfect equahty, and no difference was made on
account of age, each century having one vote. Within the
plebeian order Servius Tullius separated the more noble and
wealthy into two classes, the first consisting of those who had
formerly belonged to the Latin nobility, and the second of
those who had not. To the class of nobles he assigned the
twelve remaining equestrian centuries, and this without any
regard to their property, except that those who had become
quite impoverished were probably omitted. This is a point
which you must bear in mind ; for, according to the prevalent
opinion based upon an incorrect expression of Cicero {censu
maximo), the members of these twelve centuries are said to have
been the wealthiest among the plebeians. Had the equiies been
the wealthiest then as they were after the Hannibalian war, how
senseless would the constitution have been ! There would have
been no division of property between 1,000,000 sesterces, the
sum fixed for this class after the Hannibalian war, and 100.000;
whereas, from the latter sum downwards, there appear a num-
ber of divisions. AVe have moreover the express testimony of
Polybius, that the property quahfication of the equites was
something new and opposed to the ancient notions, according
to which, descent was the determining point. Lastly, another
proof is contained in the testimony that the censors could dis-
tinguish a plebeian by enrolling him among the equites, a fact
which excludes classification according to property. Under
Augustus, things certainly were difterent; for at that time the
most distinguished men could not become equites without a
certain amount of property.
90 THE CHARACTER OP THE CENSUS.
Now what is to be understood hy census F Among ourselves,
every kind of property and all rights which can be estimated
in money would be included in it. But among the Eomans it
was different; and it must be regarded as an undoubted, fact,
that the census affected only res corporales, that is substantial
objects, and not res incorporales, such as debts. If, for example,
1 have a piece of land worth fifty thousand asses, and owe ten
thousand to another person, my property in reality amounts to
only forty thousand asses ; but such things were not taken into
account in the census of the ancients, and debts were not
noticed at all. This very important and decisive point has not
been attended to by the earlier writers on Roman history, be-
cause they were not men of business. We must not regard the
census as a property-tax, but as a land-tax or a complex of
direct taxes: certain objects were estimated according to pre-
scribed formulae, at a particular value; and a certain per-
centage was paid on that estimate. In the Dutch part of
Friesland, lands were valued in pounds, and upon these pounds
a certain tax was levied; hence a piece of land was called pon-
demate. The Roman census then comprised all property in
land, and undoubtedly also all res mancipi ; but I am convinced
that nothing was paid on outstanding debts, even though they
might constitute the property of the richest man at Rome.
The Attic census, on the other hand, was a real property-tax.
The consequence was, that at Rome the whole mass of move-
able property possessed very little influence ; for the wealthiest
capitalist might be entirely free from taxes, landed property
having to bear all the burthens, but at the same time enjoying
all the privileges: in this point the census accurately corre-
sponds to our direct taxes, in imposing which likewise no notice
is taken of any debts with which the property in land may be
burthened.
All those Romans who were not contained in the equestrian
centuries, were divided into such as possessed more than 12,500
asses, and those whose census did not come up to that sura.
The former were subdivided into five classes; among them
were no patricians, but all those plebeians whose census amount-
ed to the specified sum, and the aerarians, that is, those who
were not contained in the tribes, but whose property placed
them on an equality with them ; the aerarians were now what
the plebeians had been before, and, if they acquired landed
JUNIORE8 AND SENIORES. 91
property, they were enrolled in a tribe. The first class com-
prised all those who possessed 100,000 asses or upwards, and
their property might consist of land, metal, agricultural imple-
ments, slaves, cattle, horses and the like : it was divided into
eighty centuries. All persons from the age of sixteen to forty-
five were counted sajuniores, those from forty-five to sixty as
seniores. At Sparta a man was liable to serve in the army till
his sixtieth year; but at Rome, the seniores had no other duty
than to defend the walls of the city. The seniores undoubtedly
did not form one half of the whole population ; for under the
favourable circumstances of a southern climate, thay could
hardly have amounted to more than one third or more accu-
rately to two sevenths ; all persons alive above the age of forty-
six may perhaps have been no more than one half the number
of the juniores. There is every probability that at that time
all civil rights and civil duties ceased with the sixtieth year.
In Greece^ a higher value was set upon the abilities of old age ;
among the Melians, the whole government was entrusted to
the hands of the old men above sixty. Although the seniores
at Eome were in number only about half as many as the
juniores, yet they had an equal number of votes with them,
and probably voted first.
The remaining four classes were valued at 75,000, 50,000,
25,000 and 12,500 asses respectively. The second, third, and
fourth, had each twenty, and the fifth, thirty centuries. One
hundred thousand asses were not a large property, being about
the same value as 10,000 drachmae at Athens, one as being
about 3^ farthings English. In the army, each century served
in a fixed proportion, so that a century which contained a
smaller number of citizens performed a greater proportionate
amount of military service than the more numerous ones. It
was a combined levy from the tribes and the centuries. Within
the thirty tribes, one man was always called up from each
century of the juniores, so that each century fiirnishcd thirty
men. Each succeeding class had to furnish a greater number
of troops, in such a manner, that while the first furnished a
single contingent, the second and third had each to furnish a
double one, the fourth a single one, employed as dartsmen,
and the fifth again served with a double contingent.
The object of the constitution, based as it was upon property,
would have been completely lost, unless the first class had
92 THE CONSTITUTION OF
had a preponderance of votes. The centuries in the lower
classes became larger in the number of persons contained in
them, in proportion as their property decreased, so that of
thirty-five citizens possessing the right of voting six only
belonged to the first class. Dionysius is here perplexed in the
detail, but he ^had before him a distinct statement that the
summing iip was made according to property.
All those whose taxable property did not amount to 12,500
asses were again sub-divided into two sections: those who
possessed more than 1500 asses still belonged to the locnpletes ;
those who had less were called joro/e/ffriz, that is persons exempt
from taxes : they formed one century. The locupletes embraced
all the plebeians except the proletarii, and were so far quite
equal among themselves; but between them and the proletarii
there was a gulf; any locuples, for example, might in a court of
justice be surety for another person, but not so a, jiroletarian :
it is clear that those only could be vindices with sums of money,
Avho could prove from the registers of the censors that they
possessed such money; there is moreover no doubt that only
locupletes could be chosen by the praetor as judices, or come
forward as witnesses, as is proved by the expression locupletes
testes. The proletarians therefore belonged to quite a different
category, but whether they were at that time allowed to vote in
the plebeian tribes is uncertain.
Such was the constitution of the centuries of Servius, re-
specting which Livy differs from Dionysius, and both again
from Cicero's statement in the second book ])e Re Publica;
but this passage though very corrupt may be emended. The
sum total is 195 centuries, of which 170 belonged to the five
classes, two of the locupletes or assidui (the accensi and velati),
two of the proletarians (the proletarii in a narrower sense, and
the capite censi), the three centuries of the trades ; and lastly
the eighteen equestrian centuries, six consisting of patricians
and twelve of plebeians. The passage of Cicero has given
rise to several conjectures, all of which are erroneous, as, for
example, that of the celebrated Hermann; but if a person is
familiar with such investigations, all may be made clear by
the Roman numerical combinations, which I have developed,
the object of the whole institution was, that the minority should
have a decisive influence'*, wealth and birth having all the
* The Abbe Sieyes, it is true, has said, la minority a toujours tort.—H.
THE CENTURIES. 93
power; for the eighteen equestrian centuries and the eighty
centuries of the first class were first called upon to vote ; if they
agreed on any question it was decided at once, as they formed the
majority of centuries, though they contained by far the smaller
number of citizens. Among persons of the same class again it
was the minority which decided, because the forty centuries of
the seniores contained far fewer voters than the juniores.
If this institution had had the meaning assigned to it by the
historians, it would have been highly unjust towards the patri-
cians, who surely still formed a considerable part of the nation.
These historians did not see that the patricians did not belong
to the classes at all — their presence in the centuries being only
a representation, and consequently only of symbolical import-
ance — but they merely said that the patricians probably voted
with the wealthy, that is in the first class; now the patricians
were by no means wealthy according to the census, since they
possessed the floating capital only, not the allodia. But the
alleged injustice did not exist, for the centuries stood to the
curies in the same relation as the House of Commons stands to
the House of Lords. No election nor law was valid, unless
when sanctioned by the curies, which sanction is implied in
the expression ut p aires auctores fierent ; the centuries moreover
could not deliberate on any subject which had not been pro-
posed by the senate, and no member of a century had the right
to come forward and speak ; which right was certainly possessed
by the members of the curies. In the assemblies of the
tribes, the discussion of subjects proposed by the tribunes
seems indeed to have been permitted, until the voteswere taken ;
but this permission was probably not often made use of The
power of the commonalty in the centuries was thus extremely
limited; it was merely one step towards republican freedom.
At that time the assembly of the tribes had nothing to do with
the framing of laws; they could only elect their own officers
and make arrangements concerning their local interests; three
may have been among them regulations respecting the poor,
for bread was distributed under the superintendence of their
aediles at the temple of Ceres; but their most important power
was conferred upon them by Servius Tullius,who granted to the
plebeians the right of appeal to the assembly of the tribes
against sentences of punishment pronounced by a magistrate
upon disobedient individuals. The privilege of an appeal to
tlie cii ries had long been possessed by the patricians.
94 LAWS OF SERVIUS TULLIUS.
The laws of Servius Tullius may have contained far more than
we know, but Tarquinius Superbus is said to have completely
abolished them, that is, they were not found in the jws Papiri-
anum. It is stated that there were fifty laws. How far the
equalisation of the two estates was carried is uncertain ; but the
exclusive right of the patricians to the domain land, and the
pledging of a creditor's person are said to have been abolished.
It is more certain that the legislator intended to lay down the
kingly dignity and to introduce the consulship in its stead, so
that the populus and plebes should each be represented by a
consul, an idea which was not realised till one hundred and
fifty years later by the Licinian law. Servius looked upon
himself as a vofMoOirr]'; like Lycurgus or Solon. This change in
the form of government would have been easy, for the kings
themselves were only "magistrates elected for life, like the stadt-
holder in Holland, or the President in the United States, who
is elected for four years ; and such constitutions seem to have
been very frequent among the early Italian nations. The elec-'
tion of two consuls appears to have been prescribed in the com-
mentaries of Servius Tullius^ ; but it was not carried into effect,
either because his life was taken away too early or because he
himself deferred it. Tanaquil is said to have entreated him not
to renounce the throne nor to forsake her and hers. What is
ascribed to Servius Tullius was not entirely accomplished by
this king, but occasioned the revolution of Tarquinius Super-
bus. Although Servius is stated to have reigned forty-four
years, still Livy mentions only one war, that against Caere
and Tarquinii, which was brought to a close in four weeks.
Dionysius, too, relates no particulars that have even an appear-
ance of truth. The time of his reign is much too long in our
accounts, and it was probably very short.
The same legislator is said to have permanently settled the
relations between Rome and the Latins. The report is, that
he concluded an alliance with the latter and induced them to
erect a common sanctuary on the Aventine, in which the
tables of the league were set up, and in which Rome offered a
sacrifice, a circumstance which, as Livy says, was a confessio
rem Romanam esse superiorem. The investigation into the con-
dition of the Latin people is one of the most difficult : at first
every thing seemed to me to be a mass of confusion, and it
* lAxy says: duo consules creati sunt ex commentariis Servii Tullii. — N.
CONFEDERACY WITH LATINS AND SABINES. 95
was only step by step that I began to see clearly. It is a
mistake of the ancients, which I shared with them till very
recently, that Servius acquired the supremacy over the Latins ;
for this was not gained till the time of Tarquinius, and the very
writers who ascribe it to Servius afterwards relate the same
thing of Tarquinius. The foundation of the festival of the
Ferine Latinae on the Alban mount was from very early times
attributed to Tarquinius Priscus or Superbus, but a more cor-
rect view entertained also by some of the ancients is, that it
originated with the Prisci Latini. If the head of the Latins
offered up the sacrifice there, and the Romans merely participat-
ed in it, it was natural that in order to represent the equality
of the two nations a counterpoise should have been formed on
the other side, where Rome had the presidency and where the
Latins were only guests. This was effected in the temple of
Diana on the Aventine ; the Latins subsequently, after recover-
ing their independence, transferred this national property to a
grove near Aricia. In former times. Alba had been a sovereign
city ; afterwards the Romans and Albans were united in friend-
ship as two distinct peoples, and under Servius they joined each
other in a federal union with a common sacrifice. This confe-
deracy existed not only between the Romans and Latins, but also
with the Sabines, and formed a great state, of which Rome was
the centre, and there is no doubt that a portion of Etruria also was
subject to it. This league we regard as the work of Servius, a
view which recommendsitself by its simplicity and removes the
above-mentioned contradiction. At the time when the plebe-
ians became citizens, the Latins approached the Romans more
closely, and stepped into the position which the plebeians had just
quitted : so long as there existed any life in the Roman people, we
find a constant advance of those elements which had been added
to it, and as soon as an old element decayed, the nearest succeed-
ed to its place; those who were first allied were first admitted
into the state and formed into plebeian tribes. In this manner
the whole of the Roman constitution was in the perpetual en-
joyment of a renewed vitality, never stopping in its develop-
ment. The Roman people ever refi'eshed and renewed itself, and
Rome is the only state, which down to the fifth century con-
stantly returned to its ovra principles, so that its life was ever
becoming more glorious and vigorous, a feature which Montes-
quieu regards as the only true movement in the life of states.
96 JANUS BIFRONS.
At a later period checks were employed to repress that which
was coming into existence, and then life began to withdraw and
symptoms of decay became visible. Traces of this state of
things appeared even a hundred years before the time of
the Gracchi ; in their age it broke out and continued to increase
for forty years, until it produced the war of the allies and
that between Sulla and Marius, from which the people came
forth as a disorderly multitude, which could no longer exist
in republican unity, but necessarily required the absolute
authority of a ruler. It is not difficult to say how Kome
might have renewed and preserved herself for a few centuries
longer: the road to happiness lay open, but selfish and
foolish prejudices blinded the Komans, and when they were
willing to strike into the right path it was too late.
Respecting the gradual extension of the city, the most differ-
ent opinions are current, which in the common works on
Roman topography, such as that of Nardini, form the greatest
chaos. Order, however, may be introduced into it. We must
take into consideration that the form of these statements is not
the same in all writers; for one account says that under this
or that king a particular hill was built upon, another that it
was included in the city, and a third again ihat the inhabitants
of the hill were admitted to the franchise. The result of my
investigations is as follows: The ancient city of Rome was
situated on the Palatine ; thepomoerium of Romulus mentioned
by Tacitus ran from the Forum Boarium across the Circus as
far as the Septizonium, S. Gregorio, the arch of Constantine,
the thermae of Titus, and thence back through the via sacra
past the temple of Venus and Roma ; this whole circumference
formed the suburb around the ancient city, and was not
enclosed by a wall but by a mound and a ditch. At that time
there existed on the Quirinal and the Tarpeian rock a Sabine
town, which likewise had its pomoerium; between the two
mounds and ditches ran the via sacra^ in which stood the
Janus Quirini or Bifrons, a gateway on one side facing the
Roman and on the other the Sabine town ; in times of peace
it was closed, because then intercourse between the two towns
was not desired; but in times of war it was opened, because
the cities were allied and obliged to assist each other. An
instance perfectly analogous to this exists in the Gaetulian town
of Ghadames beyond Tripoli?, which is inhabited by two hostile
THE PUBLIC WORKS. 97
tribes; it is divided by a wall into two parts, connected by a
gate in the wall, which is closed during peace and opened
during war.^ The Caelian hill was included in the city according
to some by Romulus, according to others by Tullius Hostilius,
and according to others again by Ancus Marcius; but the fact
is, that the hill, which had been inhabited before, was under
Ancus united with the city by means of a ditch, the fossa
Quiritium, running from the ancient ditch of the pomoeriimi
as far as the porta Capena; this ditch, the first extension of
Rome, was made partly for draining off the water, partly for
the purpose of protection. The soil there contains too much
water to favour excavations, otherwise the most beautiful anti-
quities would be found in the Circus : the obelisk was dug out
thence in the sixteenth century. The aqua Marrana is not the
aqua damnata of Agrlppa : in the ancient Circus there was a
canal which drew off the water. It is there that we have to
seek the septem viarum ricus, where Ancus made the ditch,
perhaps as far as the sewers (^cloacae). On the Esquiline like-
wise there was a suburb. But the Roman and Sabine towns
were as yet separated by the Forum, which was then a swamp.
The whole district of the Velabrum was still part of the river
or a lake, and until it was drained, a topical union of the two
towns was impossible. The Janus was the only road, and prob-
ably formed a dike.
The works ascribed to Tarquinius Priscus, the immense
sewers or cloacae, consisting of one main arm and several
branches, were executed for the purpose of effecting this union
of the two towns. The main arm (^cloaca maxima), of very
ancient architecture, is still to be seen, and still conveys the
water into the river: its innermost vault is a semicircle, eisfh-
teen palms ^ in width, and is enclosed in two other stone vaults
of pejjerino (a volcanic stone from the neighbourhood of Gabii
and Alba), one above the other, in the form of semicircles.
The hewn blocks are all 7 3 palms long and 4 J high; they are
fixed together without cement, and are kept in their places by
the exactness with which they fit to one another in forming
' This fact is related by Lyon, Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa,
London, 1821, 4to. p. 162. The two tribes inhabiting the town are the Beni
Walid and Beni Wasiil; but according to Lyon's account, the gate in the wall
is closed in time of war. — Ed.
' A Roman palm is about nine inches. — N.
VOL. 1. H
98 THE SEWERS.
the vault. In the course of 2000 years, the whole structure
has not sustained the trace of a change, aiid earthquakes, which
destroyed the city and upset obelisks, have left it unshaken ;
so that we may assert that it will last till the end of the world.
This is the work which rendered it possible to give to Rome its
subsequent and final limits : the whole quay is built of the same
kind of stones, and shews the same architecture.
The other sewers begin between the Quirinal and Yiminal,
and run along under the Forum Augustum, the Forum Roma-
num, and the Forum Boarium to the Velabrum and cloaca
maxima ; they are equally well preserved, but lie deep below
the surface of the earth. They were discovered in the time of
pope Benedict XIV. They are executed in the same gigantic
style, but of travertino, from which it is evident that they be-
long to a later period, though probably to the time of the
republic, perhaps to the first half of the fifth century of Rome,
shortly before the Hannibalian war. The whole district down
to the river, and on the other side of the Capitoline hill, was
now inhabitable; but greater designs for extending the city
were soon formed. It was desirable to form a high and dry
plain possessing the advantage of not being inundated, and to
which in times of war the country people might take refuge,
on the north side of the Esquiline : for this purpose Servius
Tullius constructed his great mound from the poj'ta Collina to
the Esqviiline gate, neai'ly a mile in length, and a ditch of one
hundred feet in breadth and thirty in depth. The soil taken
out of this ditch formed the mound, which was lined with a
wall on the side of the ditch and was provided with towers.
Scarcely anything is left of this enormous work, wliich amazed
Pliny who saw it in a state of perfect preservation, but its di-
rection is still perceptible. In the times of Augustus and
Pliny, when it was still perfect, it served as a public walk for
the Romans; and Dionysius must have seen and walked upon
it often enough. Rome now encompassed all its seven hills,
as by this mound the Yiminal was first inclosed within the city,
which thus acquired a circumference of more than five miles.
Here then we have another proof of the absurdity of the opi-
nion of Florus and others, who regarded the time of the kings
as a period of infancy {infans in cunis vagiens) ; on the contrary,
after the period of the kings, the greatness of Rome was for a
\or\ii time on the decline.
SEKVIUS TULLIU3. — MASTARXA. 99
LECTURE IX.
The question now is, Who was Servius Tullius? I will not
trouble you with the story in Livy; the miracles there related
belong to poetry and to the lay of Tarquinius, but attention
must be paid to the Etruscan tradition about Servius Tullius
and to the fragment of the speech of Claudius on the tables of
Lyons, containing the account of Caeles Yibenna and Mastarna,
from ancient Etruscan historians.^ Xot the slightest notice has
been taken of these tables since their discovery in 1560, and
my attention was not di'awn to them till I had published the
first volume of my history, when I was censured by a cele-
brated reviewer for having overlooked those documents. I
never was so much surprised by any literary discovery, for I
then still believed in the Etruscan origin of Eome, and thought
that this document might diffuse an entirely new light over
the history of Kome. Caeles Vibenna must be an historical
personage ; he is too frecjuently and too distinctly mentioned
to be fabidous, and his Etruscan name cannot have been in-
vented by the Romans, as the Etruscan language was to them
as foreign as Celtic is to us. Xor can it be doubted that he had
a friend of the name of Mastarna. But when I examine the
legislation ascribed to Servius Tullius, — allowing for whatever
deductions must be made from historical certainty, especially
in regard to chronology, though there is not the slightest
doubt that Servius' reign preceded that of the last king, and
that he was overthrown by Tarquinius Superbus who is tho-
roughly historical, — when, I say, I examine this legislation,
I find it so peaceful and so liberal, that I cannot see how a
condoitiere of hired mercenaries (for such were his troops) could
have drawn up such mild laws, and have wished to change the
monarchy into a republic. The whole civil and political legis-
lation of Servius Tullius has a completely Latin character, and
his relation to the Latms also suggests that the lawgiver was
of that nation. He may have been a native of Corniculum,
and have ascended the throne contrary to established usage;
he may have been the offspring of a marriage of disparagement
' Comp. above p. 67, etc. : it has there been obseiTed that the following re-
marks belong to the year 1828, and must accordingly be regarded as the last
results of Niebuhr's investigations into this subject. — Ed.
h2
100 ETRUSCAX T.ITERATURE.
and the son of one of the Liiceres by a ^voman of Corniculnm
previously to the establishment of theconnubium, and this may
be the foundation of the story of his descent; but he surely
was not a foreigner nor a commander of mercenaries. I have
not the slightest doubt as to the honesty of the emperor Clau-
dius, nor do I undervalue the importance of the Etruscan
works (would that we had them ! much that we do possess of
ancient literature might be joyfully sacrificed for them), but
we must not ascribe too high a value to them. What they
really Avere, no one could know before A. JMai's discovery (in
1818) of the Veronensian Scholia on the Aeneid. We there
find quotations from two Etruscan historians, Flaccus and
Caecina, which immensely reduce the estimate of the value of
Etruscan books for the early times, though they might perhaps
be invaluable for the later history of that isolated nation. It
appears that just as the Romans misunderstood the ancient
Latin history and substituted the Tyrrhenian in its place, so
the Etruscans adopted the traditions of the Tyrrhenians whom
they subdued, and represented Tarchon, who acts a promi-
nent part in Virgil, and may have occurred in the Roman
tradition under the name of Tarquinius Priscus, as the founder
of their empire from Tarquinii. If Claudius actually made use
of the ancient rolls of the Etruscans, which were written back-
wards, and are mentioned by Lucretius, he was on slippery
ground, and hov/ much more so, if he followed Flaccus and
Caecina, who wrote quite uncritically. Etruscan literature is
mostly assigned to too early a period: from the Hannibalian
war down to the time of Sulla, Etruria under the supremacy
of Rome enjoyed profound peace, and it is to this period of
somewhat more than a century, that most of the literary pro-
ductions of the Etruscans must be referred. Previously to the
social war, literature, as Cicero says, flourished in every part
of Italy, but all knowledge of it is lost; there can be no doubt,
however, that historical works were composed in other parts of
Italy as well as at Rome. Now when a person read in Etrus-
can books of Caeles Yibenna and Mastarna, and made his
combinations, he might with some vanity have asked himself;
" Wliat became of this Mastarna? he must surely have been
Servius Tullius, whose birth is buried in obscurity." In this
manner any one might hit upon this idea ; and Claudius, owing
to the dulness of his intellect, was the very person to believe
THE LAY OF TARQUINIUS. 101
such a thing. In like manner, he says of the tribuni militares
consulari potest ate: qui seni saepe octoni crearentur, though it is
a fact that there were always six, half of them patricians and
half plebeians, or promiscuously, or four patricians including
the praefectus urbi; once only we hear of eight, in which case
the two censors were included, as Onuphrius Panvinius has
proved.^ This may have happened in one or two other in-
stances, but at all events Claudius committed a mistake. Our
account of ^Mastarna therefore is apparently based upon a ver}'-
slender authority; the Etruscan annals from which Claudius
derived his information may have been ancient, but no one
says that they actually were ancient. I have here dwelt so
long upon this subject because there is an evident tendency,
which will not cease very soon, to derive information on the
history of Rome from that of Etruria. The discovery of the
Etruscan language, and the consequent power of deciphering-
inscriptions in it, might be of some assistance ; but it is hardly
conceivable that inscriptions should furnish much light, for
history was contained in books only.
The unity of the lay of the Tarquins from the arrival of
Tarquinius Priscus down to the battle of lake Eegillus cannot
be mistaken: it is a splendid subject for an epic poet and
would have been much more worthy of Virgil than that of the
^neid. It is credible enough, and seems to be derived from
ancient traditions, that Servius TuUius was almost obliged to
have recourse to force in order to carry his legislation, that he
formed his centuries at his own discretion and on his own re-
sponsibility, and that they in return recognised him as king a
second time, and confirmed his laws. In antiquity, all such
changes were carried into effect in a similar manner. It is
further stated, that the patricians were indignant at this legis-
lation, although it took nothing from them, and only granted
something to the second estate; that they made attempts to
murder the king; and that for this reason he would not allow
them to live on the Esquiline where his house stood, but com-
pelled them to reside in the valley below : all this derives great
probability as a tradition from its internal consistency. The
real tragedy, however, is said to have originated in the king's
own house. His two daughters, the one a pious and the other
a wicked woman, were married to the two sons of Tarquinius
^ Liv. V. 1. with the commentators.
102 TUE DAUGHTERS OF SERVIUS TULLIUS.
Priscus : the pious one to the younger, L. Tarquinius, a gallant
but ambitious youth, the wicked one to the elder, Aruns. The
latter, seeing that her husband was inclined to renounce the
throne, offered her hand to L. Tarquinius, and murdered her
husband ; he accepted the offer and carried out her designs.
Tarquinius, then, it is said, formed a party among the patri-
cians, and with them concerted the murder of Servius Tullius.
When the king appeared in the curia, he was thrown down
the steps, and afterwards murdered in the street by the emissa-
ries of Tarquinivis. Tullia, after having saluted her husband
as king, on her return home drove over the corpse of her
father, whence the street received the name of vicns sceleratus.
Although we are not under the sad necessity of considering
this as an authentic account, still it may be regarded as an
historical fact, that Servius lost his life in an insurrection of
Tarquinius, and that the latter was supported by the whole
body of burghers, but more especially by the Luceres, his own
party {/actio regis, gentes minores), who therefore derived the
greater advantage from the revolution, while the first two
tribes felt themselves oppressed. But I am as far from believ-
ing all the particulars that have been handed down about the
daughters of the aged king, as I am from believing the story
of Lady Macbeth. Our habits and manners differ so widely
from those of southern nations, that we can form no idea of the
possibility or impossibility of their crimes ; but even admitting
the possibility of these accounts, historical they certainly are
not. It may be matter of history that the reign of Tarquinius
Superbus was brilliant but extremely oppressive, and that he
trampled the laws of Servius under foot; but the fearful mas-
sacres belong to the poem. Tarquinius has the misfortune to
possess a fearfid poetical celebrity, and probably to a much
greater extent than he deserved. He cannot have entirely
abrogated the Servian legislation: though it is possible that he
stopped the assemblies of the plebeian tribes, abolished their
festivals, and did not consult them on matters of legislation and
in the election of magistrates. For the latter there cannot in
fact have been much occasion, since the judges for capital cases
were elected by the patricians. We read that Tarquinius exe-
cuted enormous architectural works such as the magnificent
Capitoline temple, after having prepared the area for it; and
it is possible that he compelled the plebeians to perform such
TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS. 103
heavy task work, that many made away with themselves, and
that in order to prevent this, he ordered their bodies to be
nailed ou crosses; but we must here be cautious and scrupulous,
for the detail at any rate is uncertain, nor is every thing true
which cannot be asserted to be impossible. I am convinced
that Tarquinius did not abolish the Servian division into
classes, partly because it was an advantage to him to have the
improved military system, and partly because, from the con-
nection he formed with Latium, we must infer the equality
of the constitutions of the two states, so that either Servius
Tullius gave a Latin constitution to Rome, or Tarquinius
Superbus a Roman one to the Latins.
LECTURE X.
Although there is not the slightest doubt of the historical
existence of Tarquinius Superbus, and although we may form
some conception of his revolution, still the account which we
have of the latter is more than doubtful. But a revolution
unquestionably did occur ; and the constitution of Servius was
to some extent suspended for the advantage of the patricians,
especially those of the third tribe. It is surprising however
that, notwithstanding this, the third tribe appears after this
revolution to occupy a position inferior to that of the two
others. But the very fact that the interests of the first two
tribes did not harmonise with those of the third, prepared the
way for a popular revolution.
The statement that he entirely abolished the Servian consti-
tution cannot be true, because in liis reign the relation of
Rome to Latium contimied as before. According to Livy and
Dionysius, the Latins, with the exception of Gabii, were in-
duced to recognise the supremacy of Rome and of Tarquinius;
but Cicero in his work De Republica, says: Universum Latium
bello suhegit. Of a war with the Latins, there is no trace any
where, and it must be left uncertain whether the other writers
omitted to mention it, or whether Cicero wrote that sentence
carelessly and thoughtlessly. It is probable, however, that
104 THE FERIAE LATINAE.
from tlie earliest times tliere existed irreconcileable differences
between the poetical and historical tradition. The story of
Turnus Herdonius has a very poetical colouring. Under
Servius, the league with Latium had been one of recipro-
city, but that country now entered into the condition in which
we afterwards find the Italian allies, that is, the condition of
an unequal alliance, by which they were bound majestatem
populi Romani comiter colere. It would appear that on the
accession of Tarquinius at Rome, the Latins refused to renew
the alliance which they had concluded with his predecessor.
In the treaty between Rome and Carthage ^ we find Rome
in possession of all the coast, not only of the Prisci Latini, but
as far as Terracina, which then was probably still Tyrrhenian
and not Volscian ; its inhabitants in the Greek translation are
called vTTTjKoot. Rome concluded the treaty for them as well
as for herself; and it was stipulated that if the Carthaginians
should make conquests in Latium they should be obliged to
give them up to Rome. . This treaty is as genuine as any thing
can be, and it is a sti'ange fancy of a man otherwise very
estimable^, to look upon it as a forgery of Polybius. Here
then we find Latium still dependent upon Rome, and this
dependance is expressly attested by Livy: at the beginning
of the republic the relation was one that had been recently
established. Afterwards,when all the country as far as Antium
rose against Rome, the power of the latter again appears to
be on the decline. The Feriae Latinae were an assembly of
all the Latin people (not merely of tlie Prisci Latini) on the
Alban mount, where accordingly the Latin magistrates must
necessarily have presided ; but Dionysius relates that Tarquinius
instituted the festival, and that a bull was sacrificed, of which
the deputies of each town received a share {carnem Latinis
accipere). The IMilan scholiast on Cicero's speech for Plancius^
says that there was a different tradition ; for that some ascribed
the festival to Tar([uinius Priscus, — this is only an interpola-
' This document was preserved in the archives of the aediles; and Polybius,
jis he himself says, translated it not without great difficulty into Greek, since the
Honians themselves were scarcely able to read and understand the ancient charac-
ters. Such a treaty had to be renewed from time to time, as was often the case
ill antifjuity, and is still the custom in the states of North Africa. — N.
■^ U. Becker in Dalilmann's Forschungen auf dcm Gebiete der alien Geschichte-
—El).
' Orclii, torn. v. part ii. p.255.
RULE OF TARQUINIUS. 105
tion for Tarquinius Superbus, caused by the hatred entertained
against the latter, just as the foundation of the Capitoline
temple was assigned to the former, — and others to the Prisci
Latini, that is, to the earliest times. The latter statement is
perfectly correct, for these festivals had existed long before
Tarquinius, and were in fact as old as the Latin nation itself.
But the other account also has some appearance of truth : it
arose out of a misunderstanding which may easily be excused ;
for if Tarquinius Superbus acquired the supremacy over the
Latins, it is natural to infer that he also became the president
at their sacrifices, just as the ^tolians during their supremacy
did at Delphi, whence the well-known expression in inscriptions
lepofivq/xovovvTcov AItcoXmv.
Now in order to be able to make the best use of Latium for
his objects, since after all he did not quite trust the Latins,
Tarquinius did not allow their troops to form legions by them-
selves or to serve under their own officers. He therefore
combined the Roman and Latin legions, and then again divided
them into two parts. The Latins had a division similar to
that of the Romans; for both nations had centua'ies, those of
the latter corresponding to the thirty tribes, those of the former
to their thirty towns. Tarquinius united one Latin and one
Roman century into one maniple, and th.epj'imus cen turio wsiS a
Roman officer, just as in the East Indian possessions of the
English the officers are always Europeans. Livy confounds the
primus centurio with the primipilus. This is the origin of the
maniples, and is the simple meaning of what Livy relates in a
confused manner, though it is not difficult to discover his error.
If, however, we take the separate accounts, we feel not a little
perplexed as to what we are to believe. Tarquinius is said to
have founded colonies at Signia and Circeii, and to have con-
quered Gabii by a stratagem. Against the former I have
nothing to say; but the latter is a forgery made up of two
stories related by Herodotus about Zopyrus and Thrasybulus of
Miletus. The treaty with Gabii however is authentic, and
from it we must infer that Gabii was not contained in the
confederacy of the thirty towns, the league with which had
been settled before. The document of the treaty with Gabii
existed in a temple as late as the time of Horace, and was one
of the few documents that were preserved ; Gabii accordingly
must have concluded a regular treaty of isopoHfy.
106 RAPE OF LUCRETIA.
It may easily be believed that Sextus Tarquinius committed
tbe outrage on Lucretia; for similar things are still of every-
day occurrence in Turkey, and were frequently perpetrated in
the middle ages by Italian princes down to the time of Pietro
Luigi Farnese (in the sixteenth centvuy); in antiquity similar
crimes are met with in oligarchies and tyrannies, as is well
known from the history of Demetrius Poliorcetes at Athens.
Cicero is quite right in saying that it was a misfortune that
Sextus hit upon a woman belonging to one of the most power-
ful famihes. I readily believe that the woman tried to avenge
herself; but the whole of the subsequent events, by which the
story acquired individuality, and its connection with the
campaign against Ardea, are of no historical value. The king
is said to have been encamped before Ardea, and to have con-
cluded a truce for fifteen years; but Ardea was dependent upon
Rome before that time, since it occurs among the towns on
behalf of which Rome concluded the treaty with Carthage. All
therefore that remains and bears the appearance of probability
is, that Lucretia was outraged, and that her death kindled
the spark which had long been smouldering under the ashes.
We are in the same perplexity in regard to the person of
Brutus. He is said to have feigned stupidity, in order to
deceive the king; and there were several traditions as to the
manner in which he attempted to accomplish this object.
His mission to Delphi along with the sons of Tarquinius,
although the mission from Agylla at an earlier period cannot
be doubted, seems to betray a later hand, and probably the
same as introduced the stories from Herodotus into Roman
history. It is further said that Tarquinius, in order to render
the dignity of tribunus celerum, the highest after that of the
king, powerless for mischief, gave the office to Biaitus. But
there is every reason for believing that the whole of Brutus'
idiocy arose solely from his name. Brutus is undoubtedly an
Oscan word connected with the same root as Bruttii ; it signifies
"a runaway slave," a name which the insolent faction of the
king gave to the leader of the rebels because he was a plebeian.
How is it conceivable that a great king, such as Tarquinius
really was, should have raised an idiot whom he might have
put to death to the dignity of tribunus celerum, for the purpose
of rendering it contemptible? Tarquinius was not a tyrant of
such a kind as to be under the necessity of weakening the
THE CELERES AND EQUITES. 107
state in order to govern it; lie might have given it power and
vigour and yet rule over it by his great personal qualities; nor
did the Romans think differently of him, for his statue con-
tinued to be preserved in the Capitol with those of the other
kings.
The following question formerly occupied much of my
attention: how could Brutus who was a plebeian be tribunus
celeruyn, since the celeres were the patrician equites ? I think
I have discovered the solution. Most writers speak of him as
if he had been the only tribunus celerum^ though it is certain
that there Avere several, as is mentioned even by Dionysius, in
his account of the priestly offices when relating the history of
Numa. The celeres were the equites, but the plebeians too had
their equites : now if each of the patrician tribes had its tribunus,
is it not natural to suppose that, among the thirty tribunes of
the plebeians, there was one who represented the plebeian
celeres in opposition to the patricians, the plebeians thus appear-
ing as a fourth tribe? The magister equitem, whose office is
regarded as a continuation of that of the tribunus celerum, was
not necessarily a patrician ; for P. Licinius Crassus was elected
to it. This magistrate was at the head of all the eighteen
centuries of the equites, in which the plebeians preponderated.
In the memorable peace between the two estates in the year
of the city 388 the plebeians again appear in the light of a
fourth tribe, since the three festal days, which were observed
at Eome and corresponded with the three tribes, were increased
by one, undoubtedly because the plebeians as a body were
treated as equal to the patricians though in the eyes of the
patricians not so perfectly equal as to entitle them likewise
to have three days. My opinion therefore is, that Brutus was
tribune of the celeres for the plebeians.
In order to give to the revolution its necessary sanction, it
is said that Collatinus brought with him Brutus, and Sp.
Lucretius brought Valerius. We may positively assert that
Sp. Lucretius belonged to the Ramnes, Valerius to the Titles*,
* The Fasti, such as we have them, mention four Valerii as sons of Volesus, viz.
Publius Pophcola, Marcus, Manius, and Lucius; the hist or his son Cains is men-
tioned only as quaestor. The ancient traditions, on the other hand, knew only two,
Publius Poplicola and Marcus with the sm-name of Maximus. Wlicrever Volesus
occurs, he is described as a Sabine; in the annals which Dionysius followed,
he appears as one of the companions of Tatius ; while others state that he went
to Rome by the command of oracles, which is probably the more ancient tradi-
108 JUNIUS BRUTUS A PLEBEIAN.
Collatinus to the Luceres; and Brutus, as we have above seen,
may be regarded as a plebeian. It is universally acknow-
ledged by the ancients, that Valerius belonged to the Titles;
Cicero states that he was consul with Lucretius and resigned
to him the fasces quia minor natu erat ; but Cicero here con-
founds gentes minores with jninor natu, the less favoured tribe
beino- called minor, for we know from Dionysius that when the
first two tribes were placed on an equality, the numbers of
the third were called vecorepoL (minores). Collatinus belonged
to the gens of the Tarquinii, and was accordingly one of the
Luceres. Brutus was a plebeian. Cicero's belief in the
descent of the Junii Bruti from our L. Junius Brutus is un-
doubted, and is worth more than the denial of the writers after
the battle of Philippi, when JM. Brutus was to be regarded as
a ho7no imitivus, that is as an outlaw. We learn even from
Posidonius, that the question about the origin of the Bruti was
a subject of discussion. Those who consider him to have been
a patrician may mention various facts in support of their opinion :
there is no doubt that many a patrician gens continued to
exist only in some plebeian families, and a transitio ab plebem
frequently occurred, especially in consequence of marriages of
disparagement: the surname in such a case is usually plebeian,
but the retaining of so illustrious a name as Brutus would not
be sui'p rising. However, so long as the consulship was not
open to the plebeians, no Junius occurs among the consuls.
In the first period of the republic we read of a tribune of the
people called L. Brutus, who became conspicuous as the author
of an important plcbiscitum in the trial of Coriolanus (Dionysius
also mentions him at the time of the secessio, but this is a
forgery). This Brutus is a real personage; but, like the whole
narrative of Coriolanus, he belongs to a different time.
Setting aside all the dramatic points in our narrative, we
find that after the fall of Tarquinius four tribuni celerum, were
in possession of the government; and thus formed a magistracy
of four men, Sp. Lucretius being at the same time princeps
tion. To consider the four individuals as brothers, is one of the^ common ge-
nealogical errors; Dion Cassius calls Marcus ovt\\ & gentilis oi Publius; and the
addition which all others give to tlie Vakn-ii, Volcsi Filiiis or Nepos, arose only
from the ordinary desire to trace all the members of a gens to one common
ancestral hero. — N.
THE TRIBUNI CELERUM. 109
senatus, and Valerius praefedus urhi. In Livy, every thing
happens as on the stage ; he mistakes the natural and necessary
course of events; but in Dionysius we find some important
traces of real history. These four men were in no way autho-
rised to bring any resolution of their own before the assembled
citizens, for the patricians could determine upon nothing unless
it was preceded by a senatus-consultum {Trpo/SovXevf/^a) , as in
all the states of Greece — a fact which is repeatedly noticed by
Dionysius. This was the case with the curies as well as with
the centuries. The first branch of the legislature that acquired
the initiative was the comitia tributa ; and it is this circum-
stance which gives to the Publilian law its extraordinary im-
portance. As long as the senate could do nothing without a
proposal of the consuls, and the assembly of the people nothing
without a resolution of the senate^ so long the consuls had it in
their power to repress ahnost every movement simply by
obstinate silence. In the present instance, it would seem that
the proposal for abolishing the kingly dignity was illegally
brought before the curies by the tribuni celerum ; but Livy
suppressed the ancient account contained in the law-books for
the sake of his own poetical narrative. The tribuni celerum
assembled and resolved to propose the abolition of royalty ; the
proposal was brought before the senate by the princeps senatus ;
the senate and the curies sanctioned it, and this is the lex
curiata. In order now to restore the constitution of Servius,
the resolution of the curies was brought before the centuries
also to obtain their sanction (the order is here a matter of
indifference) ; and this is represented as if the army at Ardea
had sanctioned the decree.
It is by no means certain that the consulship was instituted
immediately after the expvilsion of the kings: it is possible
that at first Rome was governed by the four tribuni celerum^
but it is also possible that the number of rulers was at once
curtailed and reduced to two. This was certainly not an im-
provement; but it may have been prescribed in tlie Servian
constitution with the distinct object of placing the commonalty
on an equality with the patricians, that one consul should be
a patrician and the other a plebeian; and thus it happened
that of the first consuls CoUatinus was a patrician and Brutus
a plebeian; unless their consulship was preceded by that of
Sp. Lucretius and Valerius Poplicola. The beginning of the
consular Fasti is mutilated, the first part being wanting.
110 INVASION BY THE GAULS.
LECTURE XL
The consequences of the taking of Rome by the Gauls were not
more serious for the city itself than for its history, the sources
of which were thereby entirely destroyed. In all such cases,
analogy and examples give us the best insight into the state of
things, and the chronicles of many places furnish us with in-
stances perfectly analogous in their beginnings. In my native
coimtry of Dithmarsch, they begin about 150 years before the
conquest of the country, after the great change which formed
the burghers and the peasantry into one organised whole, an
event which is not touched upon but presupposed. In a
similar manner, the Chronicle of Cologne begins its records
long after the city was great and flourishing: there were in-
deed earlier records in all the towns of the middle ages, but
they were little valued because they were too meagre, and had
lost all their interest because living tradition was no longer
connected with them. The chroniclers therefore began at a
point which followed immediately after some memorable event.
Such also was the case at Rome : there existed a history of
the time of the republic but not from its commencement; it
began somewhere about the secessio, and only a few incidents
of the earlier period were recorded, such as the peace with the
Sabines in the first consulship of Sp. Cassius, and the war with
the Volscians. All the other events, as I have before shcAvn,
were restored according to numerical schemes.
I have already observed, that when the consuls were chosen
from the two estates, Brutus represented the plebeians as after-
wards did Sextius Lateranus. It is very remarkable, that
with regard to all these ancient institutions, the Licinian laws
were really and essentially nothing else than a restoration and
a re-enactment of those of Servius. The consuls were origrin-
ally called praetores {arpaTqiyoC in Dionysius); and this was
their designation until the time of the decemvirate, when their
power was weakened, and the title of consul was substituted as
denoting something inferior. Roman etymologists were much
perplexed in the derivation of this word ; we compare it with
praesul, and exsul; praesul being one who is before another,
exsul, one who is out of the state, and consul one who is with
ORIGIN OF CONSULSHIP. Ill
another, that is collega, whence consulere, to be together for the
purpose of deliberating ; it has nothing to do with salire. The
ancients had no idea of etymology ; and it is curious to observe
how completely blind they were in this respect. The being
together of a patrician with a plebeian, however, did not last
long. It is stated that the expulsion of the Tarquins was at
first by no means followed by bitter hostility against them,
although an oath had been taken never again to allow a king
to reign at Eome; so that it might almost appear doubtful
whether the outrage said to have been committed on Lucretia
had actually taken place. But the ancients were often incon-
ceivably mild vmder such circumstances ; and it is also possible
that the influence of the royal family and of the third tribe was
still so great, that it was necessary to grant to the Tarquins the
right of election to the consulship instead of the hereditary
royalty. In Greek history, too, the royal families become
<ykviq ap^LKci.: the Codrids became archons; those who were
elected for ten years, and, at first unquestionably, even those
who were appointed for only one year were Codrids. But
such an arrangement did not last long, for Collatinus was
obliged to abdicate, and the whole gens Tarquinia was ban-
ished. It is not impossible that at that time there existed a
Tarquinian tribe, the recollection of which was afterwards en-
tirely lost. It is revolting to our feelings that Collatinus, the
husband of Lucretia, should have been exiled, and if children
of Lucretia were alive and were obliged with Collatinus to quit
the country, their banishment would be a startling cruelty, but
Lucretia's marriage with Collatinus belongs only to the poem,
neque affirmare neque refellere in animo est. She was the
daughter of Sp. Lucretius Tricipitinus ; and this circumstance is
much more emphatically mentioned than her marriage, the
story of which was probably intended to palliate the fact that
not all the Tarquins were exiled, it being necessary to explain
why, after all that happened, a cousin of the king had been made
consul ; and this could not be done more easily than by referring
to him the tradition of Lucretia.
The characteristic feature of the consulship is, that it was a
limitation of the kingly power to one year, and was elective
instead of hereditary; it was further stripped of all priestly
functions, and received no re/ievo?, which Cicero calls agri lati
uberesque ?'egii, large estates which were cultivated for the kings
112 NATURE OF THE CONSULSHIP.
by clients. These agri were now distributed among tlie com-
monalty in order that the restoration of royalty might become
impossible, and that the consuls might not have the same ex-
tensive powers as the kings. The strength of the kings con-
sisted, as among the Franks, in their retainers. Clovis was not
allowed to appropriate to himself any portion of the booty, and
yet he ruled as a despot, and his successors still more so ; but
for this power he was indebted to his comitatus alone. In the
middle ages and until the thirteenth century, the vassal of a
king was of less importance than a common freeman who care-
fully preserved his independence. The clients, who cultivated
the estates of princes, were their vassals.
The question now is, was the consulship of such a nature that
it was necessary to elect two patricians without any restriction,
or was it confined to the first two tribes, the Eamnes and Titles,
to the exclusion of the Luceres, or lastly was it a representation
of the patricians and plebeians? No one could offer himself
for the consvilship, for at first the senate alone had the right of
proposing candidates. The first of the above hypotheses is
inconceivable ; for if the first two tribes or the first two estates
had not been represented, it would have been much more natu-
ral to institute a triumvirate. But the idea of a triumvirate
does not occur in Roman history till a later time, a fact which
was entirely overlooked until I discovered the trace of it in
Joannes Lydus, an insignificant writer who had however the
use of excellent materials.
Of a plebeian consulship there is no trace down to the time
of Licinius. According to the treaty with Carthage which is
confirmed by a passage in Pliny, Horatius was elected in the
place of Collatiniis, whereas in the common tradition Valerius
Poplicola is called the successor of Collatinus; thus we have
two irreconcilable statements side by side, and we are at liberty
to exercise our criticism here as in the kingly period. The
events assigned to the kingly period, occupying large spaces of
time, admitted of extension and contraction ; and it is therefore
a natural illusion to consider as more authentic the subsequent
period, which is coimted year by year, and in which only pri-
vate persons appear on the stage. But the period of uncer-
tainty extends very far down, for the poem which related these
occurrences came down to the battle of lake Regillus. The
story of Coriolanus formed the beginning of another separate
PLEBEIAN CONSULS. 113
poem. The Fasti present the greatest differences. Three pairs
of consuls are wanting in Livy, if compared with Dionysius,
during the first thirty years ; in regard to one pair, Livy seems
to have found a gap in the Fasti, and those Fasti in which
this gap did not exist were interpolated; in the two other pairs,
Lartius and Herminius are only secondary personages who are
mentioned along with the heroes. The necessity of extending
the Fasti was felt, because they did not accord with the com-
putation of years, and new consulships were thus forged, but
the names were not taken at random, but from extinct families
and heroes of secondary rank, and these names were inserted
between the consulships of the Valerii in order to conceal their
uninternapted succession. We may therefore also form many
conjectures upon other subjects. We know from Dionysius
that the Horatii belonged to the gentes minores, so that the
place of Collatinus was again filled by one of the Luceres; I
therefore conjecture that it was perhaps intended that alter-
nately two and two, first, one of the Raranes and one of the
Tities, and next, one of the Luceres and a plebeian should
be at the head of the state. This conjecture however cannot
be followed up any further. But if Valerius was not the col-
league of Brutus, all that is related about him must fall to the
ground. After the death of Brutus, Valerius Foplicola is
said at first not to have elected a successor, ard to bave built a
stone house on the Velia. The temple of the Penates, erron-
eously called the temple of Romulus, was situated at the foot
of a steep hill, the Velia; the top of it, whereon stood the
temple of Venus and Roma, and the arch of Titus, wa? the
summa Velia, but the temple of Romulus was infima Velia.
As the people, that is, the sovereign burghers, murmured at
the building of a stone house, Valerius ordered it to be pulled
down during the night, assembled the people, that is the con-
cilium of the curies, appeared with his lictors without the axes,
and ordered them to lower i\ie fasces before the concio, whence
he received the name of Foplicola. The populus here, too, is
undoubtedly the patricians or the assembly of the burghers,
from whom the consrd derived his power, for such homage
paid to the plebeian assembly would have been the act of
a demagogue, and he would then have been called Plebicola.
This beautiful narrative can have no historical value, because,
according to the document, Valerius cannot have been consul
VOL. I. 1
114 THE VALERIAN LAWS.
alone, and tradition always mentions Sp. Lucretius as his first
colleague. The reason of his not immediately filling up the
vacant place in the consulship, is said to have been his fear of
being opposed by one who had equal rights. Sp. Lucretius
occurs in some Fasti as consul in the third year instead of
Horatius, but then comes the unfortunate interpolation; and in
order that the father of Lucretia might not be passed over,
his consulship is transferred from the third to the first year.
The Valerian laws are beyond a doubt; and it is a fact that
on the whole the Servian constitution was restored. The patri-
cians, as Livy says, endeavoured to conciliate the plebeians;
and Sallust too states, that after the revolution the government
was at first carried on with just laws and with fairness, but
that afterwards it became the very reverse. The election of
the consuls by the centuries was preserved in the ritual books,
and is therefore not quite certain. The statement, that the
first law passed by the centuries was the Valerian law, by
which the plebeians obtained the right of appeal to the com-
monalty, looks indeed very authentic, but is not so. It is quite
possible that the first elections were made by the curies, as was
afterwards unquestionably the case; but this is opposed to the
express tradition that the condition of the plebes was at first
far more favourable than afterwards.^
LECTURE XIL
One tradition about Tarquinius states that he went to Caere
and thence to Tarquinii, others make him go to Veii to obtain
the assistance of the Veientines. The emigration to Caere is
nothing else than a disguise of the jus Caeritum ewulcmdi, for
this jMs exulandi always existed between Rome and the isopolites;
the jus Caeritum was especially mentioned in the ancient law-
books, and the flight of Tarquinius was believed to have
' The rcniaiiulcr of this Lecture consists of an account of the artiticial chro-
nology of the early Ronum history, and has been transferred from this place to
page 3, etc. The following Lecture and a part of the next contained the account
of the Etniscans, which has been inserted above, p. .5.5 etc., wliich seemed to bo
a more ai)])ro])viato ))lace.
rOKSENA. — ETRUSCAN WAR. 115
occasioned it. The tradition of the books is that he went to
Caere, and that of the poem that he went to Veii and led the
Veientines against Rome. The annalists considered both as
insufficient, and thought it most probable that he went to
Tarquinii, where kinsmen of his might still have been living.
Caere, whither the king's family is said to have gone, is not
mentioned at all as having supported them during the war.
Cicero, who saw the ancient historv of Rome without its inter-
polations, knows nothing of a participation of the Tarquinians
in the Veientine war; and in his Tusculanae, he merely says
that neither the Veientines nor the Latins were able to restore
Tarquinius. The battle near the forest of Arsia is purely
mythical; Brutus and Aruns both fell fighting, and the god
Silvanus loudly proclaimed the victory after 13,000 Etruscans
and one Roman less had fallen on the field of battle. An
account like this can be nothing else than poetry.
Lars or Lar^ Porsena is an heroic name like Hercules amoncj
the Greeks, Rustam among the Persians, and Dietrich of Berne
or Etzel in the German lays; the chief heroes of such heroic
lays are frequently transferred into history and their names
connected with historical events. The war of Porsena is one
of those traditions which were most generally current among
the Romans; and it is described as a second attempt of the
Tarquins to recover the throne.
The Veientine war had had no eflTect, and there is no fur-
ther account of it after the death of Brutus. Cicero undoubt-
edly looked upon this war of Porsena in no other light than as
the expedition of an Etruscan conqueror ; and it is certain that
at that time the Romans were engaged in a highly destructive
war with the Etruscans, in which they sank as Ioav as a nation
can sink. It was nothing but republican vanity that threw
this immediate consequence of the revolution into the shade;
and the same feelinir o-ave rise to the dishonest concealment of
the Gallic conquest. The tradition must have related a great
deal about Porsena, as we may infer from the story respecting
his monument at Clusium, whicli Pliny very credulously de-
scribes after Varro, who derived his account from Etruscan
books: it is this account in particular, whicli shakes my fliith
' Lar is an Etruscan praenomen which frequently occurs on monuments and
probably signifies hng or goi. Slartial's quantity Porsvna is false: 'm'Vibenna,
Caecina and other words of the same termination, tlic penult is always long. — N.
i2
116 COCLES. — LARTIU8. — IIEIJMINIUS.
in the aiitlienticity of those books, which, to judge from this
example, must have been of au oriental character. That monu-
ment is described as a wondrous structure, such as never has
existed nor could exist, like a fairy palace in the Arabian
Nights' Tales. Pyramids stood in a circle and their tops were
connected by a brass ring, upon which at intervals rose other
pyramids of immense bases, and so on through several stages ;
forming a pyramid of pyramids, a thing which could never
have stood but must have fallen to pieces. It is inconceivable
how Varro and still more a practical man like Pliny could
have believed the existence of such a monstrosity, the impossi-
bility of which must be manifest even to a boy. That it is an
impossibility is confirmed by the fact, that neither Varro nor
Pliny saw any traces of the work, whereas if it had really ex-
isted, its ruins woidd be visible at this day, like those of the
temple of Belus at Babylon. 2 There may have been an histo-
rical Porsena, who became mythical, like the German Siegfried,
who has been transferred to a period quite different from the
true one ; or on the other hand there may have been a mythical
Porsena, who has been introduced into history; but we must
deny the historical character of every thing that is related
about his war, which ha? an entirely poetical appearance. To
what extent this is the case becomes evident, if we consider the
account in its purity and stripped of all the additions made by
the annalists. It is a peculiarity of all such poems that they
are irreconcilable with other historical facts.
According to the common tradition, the Etruscans suddenly
appeared on the Janiculum, and the Romans fled across the
river ; the poem did not even mention the conquest of the Jani-
culum, but the Etrviscan army at once appears on the bank of
the Tiber, ready to pass the Subllcian bridge: there three
Roman heroes oppose them, Horatius Codes, Sp. Lartius and
T. Herminius, probably a personification of the three tribes.
While the Romans were breaking down the bridge, the three
heroes resisted the enemy, then two of them, Lartius and Her-
minius, withdrew, and Codes, Avho belonged to the tribe of
the Ramncs, alone withstood the foe. After this, we have the
account that tlic Etruscans crossed the river, and that the con-
suls drew them into an ambuscade on the Gabinian road : this
'■^ Qnatrcmprc de Quincy once had the unfortunate idea of making an archi-
tectural re.'^toration of this monument. — N.
MUCIUS SCAEVOLA. 117
is transferred entire from the Veientine war of A.U. 275, where
the same thing occurs; the annalists made this interpolation,
because it seemed strange to them that the poem should men-
tion nothino; further of the war than the defence of the hridsre.
Livy's account is ridiculously minute. We then find Porsena
on the Janiculum. Now how is it possible that Rome could
have suifered from such a famine as is presupposed in the story
of Mucins Scaevola, if the Etruscans were encamped on tliat
one hill only? for plunderers on the Roman side of the river
were easily warded off. Livy states that Porsena carried on
the war alone, whereas in Dionysius he appears allied with the
Latins under Octavius Mamilius, an evident fabrication to ren-
der it intelligible how Rome was surrounded and suffering
from famine. There is no mention of any hostility on the
part of the Latins, until their great war. But, the fact is that
the Etruscans were masters not of the Janiculum only: that
the famine was raging furiously is acknowledged by the Romans
themselves. In this distress Mucins Scaevola, according to the
poem, undertook to kill the king, but by mistake he slew a
scribe, who was clad in purple, — a mistake inconceivable in
history, and pardonable only in a poem. Mucins then told the
king that he was one of 300 patrician youths (one of each gens)
who had resolved to murder him; whereupon Porsena con-
cluded peace, reserving to himself the seven Veientine j)agi,
and keeping a garrison on the Janiculum.
If we go into detail and ask, whether such a person as
Mucins Scaevola ever existed at all, we come to another question
which has been well put by Beaufort-^: how can Mucins be
called by Livy and Dionysius a patrician or a noble youth, when
the Scaevolae were plebeians? It is probable that the family
of the Mucii Scaevolae appropriated this Mucins to themselves,
and that in the ancient poems he had no other name but Caius ;
it is not till the seventh century that two names are mentioned,
and afterwards Scaevola (left-handed) was added; whereas the
family of the Scaevolae derived this name from quite a different
circumstance, Scaevola signifying an amulet. It is impossible
to determine how much truth there may be in the story of the
ancient Scaevola; the account which has come down to us is
evidently poetical.
^ This war of Porsena and the period of Camillus are treated in an excellent
manner by Beaufort, and that period seems to have been the centre round whiih
the other parts of his work were grouped in subordination. — N.
118 THE PEACE OF PORSENA.
Beaufort really threw great light upon tins part of Roman
history, by showing that the peace of Porsena was something
very different from what the Romans represented it. Pliny
expressly states, that by it the Romans were forbidden the use
of iron for any other than agricultural purposes ; and that hos-
tacjeswere given is acknowledged even in the common nanrative :
we thus see Rome in a state of perfect subjection : arma ademta,
obsides dati, an expression which occurs so often respecting
subdued nations. Pliny saw the treaty (nominatim comprehen-
sum invenimus), but where, is uncertain; a tablet probably did
not exist, but he may have found it in Etruscan books. Ta-
citus in speaking of the conflagration of the Capitol mentions
in no less distinct terms the deepest humiliation of the Romans
by Porsena, sede Jovis optimi mascimi quam nun Porsena dedita
URBE, neque Galli capta temeeare potuissent ; and what
deditionem \facere means, is clear from the formxila which Livy
gives in describing the deditio of Collatia to Ancus Marcius,
from which we see that it was a total surrender of a nation,
comprising both the country and its inhabitants, and that it
may be compared to the mancipatio or to the in manum conventio
of women in the civil law. To this period of subjection we
must also refer a statement in the Quaestiones Romanae of Plu-
tarch, who though he was uncritical made use of good materials :
he says that the Romans at one time paid a tithe to the Etrus-
cans, and that they were delivered from it by Hercules. Now
a tithe was paid when a person occupied a piece of land be-
longing to the state {qui ptiblici juris f actus erat), and the
deliverance by Hercules denotes their liberation by their own
sti-ength; the payment of the tithe was the consequence of
their having given up to the Etruscans themselves, and all that
belonged to them {feuda oblata). A still stronger proof of the
calamity of that time is the diminution of the Roman territory
by one third, the thirty tribes established by Servius Tullius
having been reduced to twenty, to which, in the year A.U. 259,
the trihus Crustumina' was added as the twenty-first.* It was
quite a common custom with the Romans when a state was
compelled to submit to them, to deprive it of a third part of
its territory ; it is therefore here also evident, since tribes cor-
respond to regions, and since out of thirty tribes we find only
* That this number is correct — the manuscripts of Livy liave thirty-one — has
been shewn in the new edition of the first vohune of my Roman history. — N.
BATTLE OF ARICIA. 119
twenty, that in consequence of its surrender to Porsena, Kome,
about the year A.u. 260, had lost one third of its territory: of
which fact other traces are contained in the septem pagi ayri
Vejentium, the surrender of which has already been mentioned-
In the history^ in order to conceal the capture of the city,
Porsena was made the champion of the Tarquins, and thus it
seemed as if the war had, after all, not turned out so unfortu-
nately, since its main object, the restoration of the Tarquins,
had not been obtained.
It is further related that after Porsena had returned home,
he sent his son Aruns with a part of the army to Aricia, in
order as Livy says (this is one of the passages in which he
intentionally shuts his eyes to the truth), to shew that his
expedition had not been quite in vain. But at Aricia, which
Avas a very strong place, a stop seems actually to have been
put to the progress of Porsena, through the assistance of Cuma,
for Cumaean traditions also spoke of it : the Romans are said
to have behaved with great generosity towards the fugitive
Etruscans, whereby Porsena was induced to become their
friend, to abandon the Tarquins, and to restore the seven
Veientine pagi; after this Porsena is not again mentioned.
Here we evidently have an awkwardly inserted piece of poetry.
It continued to be a custom at Rome down to a late period,
symbolically to sell the property of King Porsena previously to
every auction; and Livy had good sense enough to see that
this custom was not consistent with the statement that Porsena
and Rome had parted as friends in arms (Sopv^evot). All
becomes clear if we suppose that, after the defeat of the Etrus-
cans at Aricia, the Romans rose and shook off their yoke, a
supposition which gives to the story of Cloelia also a consis-
tent meaning; otherwise her flight with the rest of the hos-
tages must necessarily have been injurious. The great migra-
tion of the Etruscans is connected with the statement that
Tyrrhenians from the Adriatic sea along with Opicans and
other nations appeared before Cuma, though in the common
chronology there is a mistake of from fifteen to twenty years
at the least. These Tyrrhenians were not Etruscans, but the
ancient inhabitants of the country, who were pressed forward
by the advancing Etruscans and moved in the direction of
Cuma.
The result of all this accordingly is, that the Romans carried
120 DATK OF THE WAR OF PORSENA.
on an unequal contest against the Etruscans and tliclr king
Poi'sena, to whom they submitted as their master; they lost a
tliird of their territory, and of the rest they paid a tithe; the
Etruscan power was broken at Aricia, whereupon the Romans
took courage and rid themselves of their masters, but without
recovering that part of their territory which lay beyond the
Tiber, since even as late as the time of the Decemvirs the
Tiber was their boundary, except that probably the Janiculura
was Roman, as may be inferred from the law respecting the
sale o^' debtors irons Tiherim. Whether the war of Porsena
belongs to about the year to which it is assigned, whether it
happened two or three years after the consecration of the
Capitol, or at a later time, is an important question, in regard
to which Livy and Dionysius contradict each other, and are
both opposed to all the other authorities. It is easy to perceive
that the poem about the war was inserted by the annalists,
since the most ancient annals did not mention it at all. In
like manner, the lay of the Nibelungen cannot be fixed cliro-
nologically ; and Johannes jMiiller was obliged to use violence
in order to obtain a fixed chronological point. Such poems
know nothing of chronology. Valerius Poplicola appears in
the battle of lake Regillus; and this determined what place
should be assigned to the story. It is more probable, accord-
ing to other accounts, that tlie war took place ten years later
than is commonly supposed, that is, shortly before the begin-
ning of the hostilities between the patricians and plebeians. I
infer this from the statements respecting the census which I do
not altogether reject, though I will not venture to assert that
they are authentic in their present form: but they are certainly
a sign of the rise and fall of the numbers of Roman citizens.
The person with whom these statements originated, unless
they were very ancient^ had formed a view of Roman history
according to which the number of citizens during the period
in question rose from 110,000 to 150,000, and again sank to
110,000. If this rising or falling were in harmony with
the annals, we might say that some speculator had repre-
sented his view in this numerical scheme; but such a person
from vanity would never have mentioned a diminution of the
population, for we find on the contrary that in times when the
population is decreasing the annals mention victories and con-
quests. For this reason, 1 believe that some account, more
RELATION OF THE LATINS. 121
ancient than the annals, intended to shew by a numerical
scheme how Rome and Latium by unequal wars lost a part of
their population. No one can answer for the correctness of the
numbers, but the statement is independent of the annals. On
this account I refer the statement — that, between the battle of
lake Eegillus and the insurrection of the plebes, Rome was for
a long time deprived^of one-third of its population — to the fact
that the war of Porsena and the reduction of the Roman terri-
tory which was its consequence belonged to this very period;
the reduced number of citizens nearly corresponds to the loss
of one-third of the territory; and the circumstance that it does
not perfectly correspond, arises perhaps from the fact that only
the plebeians were counted, not the patricians, or that some of
the inhabitants of the lost districts emigrated to Rome.
LECTURE XIII.
In the history of Rome, as in that of most other nations, the
same events are frequently repeated, just as after the Gallic
conquest the Latins and their allies revolted from Rome, so
they broke through the alliance which had been established
under Tarquinius, as soon as Rome was humbled by the Etrus-
can conqueror. The confederacy between the two states which
was formed under Servius Tullius, had become a union under
Tarquinius, as notwithstanding the obscurity which hangs
over all the detail, is clear from the combination of the Roman
and Latin centuries into maniples. This combination is the
more certain, as Livy mentions it in two passages, first in his
account of the reign of Tarquinius, and secondly in the eighth
book, where he describes the military system. The authorities
from which he derived his information, contained testimonies
quite independent of one another ; and he quotes them without
understanding them, but in such a manner that we are able to
deduce from his statements the correct view of the annalists :
when he wrote the second passage, he was certainly not think-
ing of the first. The relation between the two nations may
have been arranged in such a way, that Rome alone had the
iinpenu7n, but the Latins received their share of the booty; or
122 BATTLE OF LAKE REGILLUS.
that the two nations had the imperium alternately. But in the
treaty with Carthage, we see that Rome had the supremacy
and that the Latins were in the condition of perioeci. The
result of the war, the only events of which are the conquest
of Crustumeria which is historical, and the battle of lake
Eegillus which is poetical, was that the Latins from the condi-
tion o^ perioeci rose to that of equal allies, just as at Groningen
the surrounding districts were raised to an equality with the
city, and in all foreign transactions appeared owly as one pro-
vince with the city.
Tarquinius and his family are said to have been the first
cause of the war; and I readily believe that he was not uncon-
nected with the movement, since his family connection with
Mamilius Octavius at Tusculum has an historical appearance,
but we cannot possibly class the battle of lake Regillus as it is
related, among the events of history. It never has occurred
to me to deny that the Romans endeavoured to restore
their dominion by war; but it is qtute a different question,
whether a great battle was fought near lake Regillus under the
command of the dictator Postumius, in which the Latins
were conquered and thrown back into their former condition.
Nay, if we may infer the cavise from its effects, which cannot
be done as surely in moral affairs as in physical ones, the Latins
were not by any means defeated, for they attained — after a
considerable time, it is true — their object, a perfectly free
alliance with Rome. The contrary might be inferred from the
circumstance that Postumius, who is said to have been dictator
or consul, was surnamed Regillensis ; but the Claudii too were
called Regillani, and names derived from districts were quite
common among the patricians; the Sergii for instance were
called Fidcnates; Regillensis may have been taken from the
town of Regillus, as some surnames were derived even from
parts of the city of Rome, as Esquilinus, Avcntinus and others.
Gentes bearing such names stood to those places in the rela-
tion of patrons. Names derived from victories do not occur
till very late, and the greatest generals before Scipio Africanus,
did not derive surnames from the places of their victories,
as Livy himself remarks at the end of th(3 thirtieth book.
The Romans imagined that they had gained a complete victory
in the battle, as is clear from the story about the Dioscuri : near
lake Regillus, where the whole district consists of a volcanic
THE DIOSCURI. 123
tufo, the mark of a horse's hoof was shown in tlie stone (just as
on the Rosstrappe in the Harz mountain), which was believed
to have been made by a gigantic horse of the Dioscuri, a tra-
dition which, down to the time of Cicero] lived in the mouths
of the people. After the battle, the Dioscuri, covered with
blood and dust, appeared in the comitium, announced the
victory to the people, gave their horses drink at a well, and
disappeared. Of this battle we have no accounts except those
in which there is an evident tendency to make it appear histo-
rical; but the poem nevertheless cannot be mistaken. The
descriptions of the battle in Livy and Dionysius have more
points of agreement with each other than is usual between the
two writers, though Dionysius's description more resembles
a bulletin, while that of Livy is fresh and animated, like the
Homeric description of a struggle between heroes, the masses
being entirely thrown into the background. The cessation of
the peace between the two states had been announced a year
before, in order that the many connections of friendship might
be dissolved as gently as possible, and that the women might
return to their respective homes. Tarquinius had gone to
Mamilius Octavius, his son-in-law, and all the Latins were
aroused. The dictator led the Romans against an army far
superior in numbers, and Tarquinius and his sons were in the
enemy's army. During the contest, the chiefs of the two armies
met: the Roman dictator fell in with Tarquinius, who being
severely wounded retreated, while the magister equitum fought
with Mamilius. T. Herminius and the legate M. Valerius as
well as P.Valerius fell, the last being slain while endeavouring
to rescue the body of M.Valerius. In the end, the Roman
equites gained the victory by dismounting from their horses
and fighting on foot. The consul had ofiered a reward to
those who should storm the hostile camp; and the object was
gained at the very first assault, in which the two gigantic
youths distinguished themselves.
Even the ancients were greatly perplexed about M. and
P. Valerius, for Marcus soon after re-appears as dictator, and
Publius had died even before the battle ; both accordingly are
described as sons of Poplicola ; but this is an unfortunate remedy,
since a P.Valerius as a son of Poplicola again occurs in the
Fasti afterwards. The poem however was not concerned about
Fasti and annals : we cannot regard the two Valcrii as sons of
124 ISOPOLITY.
Poplicola, but as the ancient heroes Maximus and Poplicola
themselves who here fought and fell. The legend undoubtedly
related that Tarquinius and his sons were likewise slain, and
the statement that the king was only wounded arose from the
record in the annals that he died at Cuma. The introduction
of the dictator Postumius was certainly a pure interpolation,
and the poem undoubtedly mentioned Sp. Lartius, who could
not be wanting here, any more than M. Valerius. The reward
offei'ed by the dictator refers to the legend of the Dioscuri, as
in the war against the Lucanians under Fabricius, when a
youth earned the ladder to the Avail, and afterwards, when the
mural crown was awarded to him, was not anywhere to be
found.
This battle forms the close of the lay of the Tarquins, as
the lay of the Xibehingen ends with the death of all the heroes.
I am as strongly convinced of this now as I was eighteen years
ago. The earliest period of Roman history is thus terminated,
and a new era opens upon us. There is no definite time to
which the battle can be assigned; some suppose it to have taken
place in a.u. 255, others in A.u. 258. Some represent Postumius
as consul, others as dictator, a sufficient proof that the account
is not historical, for if it were, the Fasti would at any rate
have accurately marked such an event. It is not impo.ssible
that peace with the Latins was restored in a.u. 259 ; and if we
were to take this statement literally, it would confirm the
victory of lake Regillus. It might be conceived that the Latins
were defeated there, and submitted to the condition which
Tarquinius had established for them; but that afterwards the
senate, from other motives, restored to thein the constitution
of Servius TuUius; be this as it may, peace was renewed be-
tween the Romans and Latins before the secession of the plebes.
For many years after the battle of lake Regillus, Livy records
nothing about the Latins, whereas Dionysius relates a variety
of events which however are arbitrarv inventions: even down
to the first resolution of the people that their prisoners should
be restored to them, we know nothing of the history of this
period, except that under Sp. Cassius, Rome concluded a treaty
with the Latins, in which the right of isopolity or the jus
municipi was conced.3d to them. The idea of isopolity changed
in the course of time, but its essential features in early times
were these: between the Romans and Latins and between the
THE COXNUBIUM AND COMMERCIUM. 125
Romans and Caerites there existed this arrangement, that any
citizen of the one state who wished to settle in the other, might
forthwith be able to exercise there the rights of a citizen. This
was called by the Greeks laoiroXLTeia, a word which does not
occur till the time of Philip, when people began to feel the
want of uniting in larger communities or states. Even before
the war, a definite relation had existed between Rome and
Latium, in which the connubium and commercium were recog-
nised, the citizens of one state having the full right of
acquiring quiritarian property in the other, of carrying on any
trade and of conducting their law-suits in person and without
a patron : they were in fact full citizens, with the exception of
political rights. Such a relation may exist along with equality
between the two states as well as with the supremacy of one;
the change which now took place was that Rome recognised
Latium as possessing equal rights with herself. Soon after the
Hernicans also joined the league, so that then all the three
states appeared in foreign matters as one state. This union
ceased after tlie Gallic war. The treaty of Sp. Cassius in a.U.
261 is not to be regarded as a treaty of peace, but as the foun-
dation of a legal relation ; it is inconceivable how this treaty
could have been mistaken, as was done even by the ancients,
when they incidentally mention it. Dionysius quotes this
treaty in words which display undoubted authenticity: he
himself indeed can never have seen the tables in the rostra, for
even Cicero in his speech for Balbus speaks of them in a man-
ner which shews that he merely remembered having seen them ;
but many Roman authors, as Macer and others, must have
known them, and Cincius, who lived two hundred years before
was well acquainted with them. This, like the Swiss treaties
may be called an eternal treaty, for it was to remain in force
as long as heaven and earth endured. But thirty years after-
wards it became antiquated through the influence of circum-
stances, and at a later period it was restored only for a short
time. It established perfect equality between the Romans
and Latins, which even went so far as to make them take the
supreme command of the armies alternately. Either state when
in distress was to be supported by the other with all its powers,
and the booty was to be divided.
This treaty contains the key to the understanding of another
event. It is about this time that we first meet with a dictator,
126 THE DICTATORSHIP.
which was properly speaking a Latin magistracy, and existed
not only in particular towns, but might, as Cato states, rule
over the whole Latin people. It is therefore probable that the
Romans likewise now elected a dictator, who ruled alternately
with a Latin one, whence the imperiwn was conferred for six
months only. Among the Etruscans, the king of each town
had one lictor, and the lictors of all the twelve towns, when
they united for any common purpose, were at the disposal of
the one common sovereign. In like manner, the twelve Latin
and the twelve Roman lictors were given to the common dic-
tator: the two consuls together had only twelve lictors, who
attended upon each alternately. At that time we also find
frequent mention of a magister populi ; it is uncertain whether
he was from the beginning the same person as the dictator, or
whether he was elected from Rome alone, the dictatorship pro-
bably existing only in consequence of the connection with
Latium. A consul might have been dictator without there
necessarily being a 7nagister populi; but whenever there was a
magister populi, there must necessarily have been a dictator to
represent Rome in transactions with foreign nations; for it is
not natural that there should have been two names for the
same office. It is probable that for a time there was a dictator
every year, that office being sometimes given to one of the
consuls, and sometimes to a person especially elected.
In the history of the period which now follows, we find
ourselves upon real historical ground : we may henceforth speak
with certainty of men and events, although now and then
fables were still introduced into the Fasti. That errors did
creep in is no more than the common lot of all human affairs,
and we must from this point treat the history of Rome like
every other history, and not make it the subject of shallow
scepticism to which it has already been too much sacrificed.
A new war broke out in which Cora and Pometia fell into the
hands of the Auruncans: afterwards these towns are said to
have been recovered by the Romans and Latins, a statement
which is very problematical. At the beginning of this period
we still meet with great discrepancies and absurdities; but of
what consequence is it that Livy relates this war twice, or
whether it happened in A.U. 251 or A.U. 258. We may safely
assert that there was an Auruncan war, that Cora and Pometia
were lost, but afterwards recovered. It is a singular thing that
FALSIFICATIONS OF HISTORY. 127
Avhen a great loss was simply marked in the ancient annals
of the Komans, the vanity of their descendants could not
leave it as it stood, but attempted to compensate for the
calamity by a bold lie. The deliverance of the city by
Camillus is the most striking, though not the only instance
in Roman history of this propensity; and Beaufort has well
demonstrated its fictitious character; the account is in itself
inconceivable, and is contradicted by Polybius^ who states
that the Gauls returned with the booty to their own country
in consequence of an inroad of the Veneti ; I do not mean to
say that in this case the falsifier was not one of the ancient
bards, for Camillus was as much a subject of poetry as the
taking of Veil. In like manner every great defeat in the Sam-
nite wars which cannot be concealed, is followed by a victory
which is altogether unconnected with the course of events,
and is intended to make up for the loss. The same thing occurs
in the wars with the Volscians and Aequians. This is a com-
mon human weakness, which in disastrous times we ourselves
may experience. The Italians of the fifteenth century insisted
upon being the genuine descendants of the ancient Romans ;
and accordingly Flavins Blondus says that Charlemagne drove
all the Lombards and other barbarians from Italy. When the
news of the battle of Austerlitz arrived in the north of Germany,
it was received with the greatest consternation; but a report
soon spread and found its way even into the newspapers, that
the French had gained a victory in the morning indeed, but
that in the afternoon the Austrians and a part of the Russians
rallied and most completely defeated the French. I witnessed
similar absurdities in 1801 at Copenhagen. The history of
Greece and of the middle ages is remarkably free of such
fictions.
I therefore believe in the invasion of the Auruncans : when
Rome was laid low by the Etruscans, she was forsaken not
only by the thirty towns, whose common sanctuary was the
temple of Ferentina, but also by the coast towns which had
been Latin, and were recognised in the treaty with Carthage
as being under the protection of Rome. There is little doubt
that Antium and Terracina, like the Latin towns properly so
called, shook off the Roman supremacy and expelled the
colonists. Both these towns were afterwards unquestionably
Volscian, but it is an erroneous opinion that tliey Avcre so
128 THE VOL8CIANS.
originally; they forin no exception to the general Tyrrhenian
population of the coast. In an ancient Greek ethnological
work which was certainly not an invention of Xenagoras, but
was derived from Italiot authorities, Antium is described as a
town of the same stock as Rome and Ardea; and Romus,
Antias and Ardeas are brothers. Terracina did not receive it8
Volscian name of Anxur till afterwards. These places became
Volscian either by conquest or by voluntarily receiving Volscian
epoeci, because they were in want of support, or lastly by being
oblisred after their revolt from Rome to throw themselves into
O
the arms of the Volscians.
The Volscians were an Ausonian people, and identical with
the Aiu'uncans, so that the same war is sometimes called
Volscian, sometimes Auruncan. They are said to have come
from Campania, and the Auruncans in Campania are known
to have been Ausonians, Aurunici and Ausonici being the
same words. Cora and Pometia, two Latin colonies, are stated
to have revolted to them ; but we cannot determine whether
they expelled the Latin colonists, or whether the taking of
these places was a mere conquest. It is certain however that
the Auruncans were in possession of Cora and Pometia, and
penetrated even into Latium, where it is not impossible that
they may have been defeated by the Romans.
LECTURE XIV.
Sallust, who in the introduction of his lost history of the
period subsequent to the death of Sulla gave, like Thucydides,
a brief survey of the moral and political history of his nation,
which is preserved in St. Augustin, says that Rome was ruled
fairly and justly only so long as there was a fear of Tarquinius;
but that as soon as this fear was removed, the potres'^ indulged
in every kind of tyranny and arrogance, and kept the plebes
in servile submission by the severity of the law of debt. In
like manner, Livy states that the plebes, who down to the
' That is, the patricians; for all coiTcct writers use the term pafre* only of
the patriciaus and not of the senate. — N.
PLEBEIANS IN THE SENATE. 129
destruction of the Tarqiiins had been courted with the greatest
care, were immediately afterwards oppressed ; that until then
the salt wliich belonged to the publicum had been sold at a low
price, that tolls had been abolished, and that the king's domain
had been distributed among the plebeians, in short the (f)c\dv-
dpcoira SUaia of Servius Tullius had been restored. Lastly,
we must notice the ancient tradition, that Brutus completed
the senate, qui imminutus erat, with plebeians : as he was tri-
bunus celerum of the plebeians and afterwards plebeian consul,
it is not at all unlikely that he admitted plebeians into the
senate, though not such a large number as is stated. But this
cannot have been of long duration ; plebeian senators cannot
have continued to exist down to the decem viral legislation ;
for Sallust, who in the speech of Macer displays an uncommon
knowledge of the ancient constitution, says, and his statement
is believed by St. Augustin , one of the greatest minds endowed
with the keenest judgment, that the patricians soli in imperils
habitabant ; whence it is probable that when things became
quiet, they expelled the plebeians. Analogies are found in
the histories of all countries, just because it is in accordance
with human nature. There can be no doubt that a strong
party of the exiled royal family had remained behind, as usually
happens in all revolutions, or a new party may have formed
and joined the exiles, as in the Italian towns of the middle
ages. Whatever we may think of the battle of lake Regillus,
and however little we may believe in the existence of a cohort
of Roman emigrants in the army of the Latins, we may with
confidence assume that the royal exiles were joined by a large
number of Romans, who continued to keep up a connection
with persons of the same party in the city, as did the (^vydhe'i
in Greece ; and as was the case in the great rebellion in Britain,
when the Stuarts were abroad, and the Irish catholics and the
Scotch presbyterians, who were subdued and partly expelled
by Cromwell, joined the ancient nobles who were scattered
about with the royal family; the same thing took place in the
French revolution also. As long as Tarquinius, who was per-
sonally a great man, lived, the patricians hesitated to go to
extremes in their innovations, though they insulted the ple-
beians and deprived them of the impci-ia ; they may even have
expelled them from the senate, and tliey certainly did not fill
up with plebeians those places which became vacant by death-
VOL. I. K
130 THE LAW OF DEBT.
The aristocratic cantons in Switzerland were always mild
towards the commonalty when they were threatened by out-
ward dangers, otherwise they were harsh and cruel ; so also,
immediately after the English revolution of 1688 the rights of
the dissenters were far greater than twelve or fifteen years
later. What particular rights the plebeians may have lost
cannot be said; it is not improbable that the Valerian law
respecting the appeal to the tribes was formally repealed ; but
that law had previously become a dead letter, because it could
be maintained only by bringing a charge after the expiration
of his office against the consvd who had acted contrary to it;
and this was a step which the plebeian magistrates no lono-er
dared to take. But the real oppression did not begin till the
fear of an enemy from without was removed.
Whether the law of debt had been altered by Servius Tvdlius,
whether Tarquinius had abolished the Servian laws, and
whether Valerius restored them, are questions in regard to
which we cannot believe Dionysius unconditionally. Tar-
quinius is said to have completely destroyed the tables on
which the Servian law was written, in order to efiiice the
recollection of it. This sounds very suspicious ; for if only a
single person had taken a copy, the king's measure would have
been of no avail ; we may however infer from this statement
that the law was not contained in the jus Popirianum : the
plebes would surely have restored it after the secession, if they
had been deprived of a right so expressly granted to them It
would therefore seem that we here have one of the plebeian
forgeries.
The consequence of the law of debt was a revolution. Had
the senate and the patricians known how to act with prudence,
and had they divided the opposition party, a thing which is
very easy in free states, the patricians would have been superior
to the plebeians, not indeed in numbers but in many other
respects; for the patricians were almost the only citizens that
had clients, and there are many passages in Livy and Diony-
sius, from which it is evident that during the first centuries of
Rome the number of clients was very great, that the patricians
distributed the domain land in many small farms among them,
and that they had them entirely in their power. These clients
were not contained in the tribes, but through their patrons
they were connected with the curies; they did not hold any
PATUICIAN MONOPOLY IN U8UKY. 1.31
hereditary property in land except by special permission of
their patrons, so that they were altogether dependent on the
patricians. The plebeians, on the other hand^ consisted of
quite different elements, Latin equites, wealthy persons, and a
number of poor people ; they were either landed proprietors or
free labourers. These various elements might easily have been
separated ; those who occupied a high station^ were ambitious
to obtain offices and influence in the state, while the common
people were unconcerned as to whether the first among them
could obtain the consulship or not, but were anxious about
very different things : the patricians with their want of pat- "
riotism and justice might thus easily have separated the mass
from the noble plebeians; but their avarice was as great as
their ambition, and thereby they oppressed the people doubly.
The whole of the domain land was in their possession, and if
they had given up to the poor small portions of it, they would
have gained them over to their side and thus detached them
from the rest of the plebeians: but as the patricians had ex-
clusive possession of all the trade in money, they considered
themselves sufficiently safe. The trade in money was un-
doubtedly of such a kind that all banking business was carried
on by foreigners, or freedmen under the protection of a patri-
cian, as at Athens by Pasion, who was a metoecus, and paid
an Athenian citizen for allowing him the use of his name."
All money transactions at Athens were in the hands of the
trapezitne; in Italy, during the middle ages, in those of the
Lombards ; and in our days in those of the Jews, none of whom
have real homes: a poor plebeian may often have tried to
borrow money of his neighbours, but was more frequently
obliged to go to the city and procure the money at the bankers.
The expression persona, in legal phraseology, arose from the
fact that a foreigner was not allowed to plead his own case in
a court of justice; and as another was obliged to do it for him,
he made use of a mask so to speak ; the fact that in later times
a pereginus could act for himself, and that a praetor jjeregrinus
was appointed for this very purpose, did not arise from the
multitude of business but from political causes. The patricians
themselves cannot have possessed very large sums of money;
but foreigners who went to Rome were obliged, like the clients,
to place themselves imdcr their protection; for which the
' Bocckli, Pull. Ecov. of Athene, p. 480. second edit.
K 2
132 LAW OF DEBT.
patricians of course received a coiDpensation in money. It
may, however, have happened now and then that patricians did
business on their own account. According to this view, then,
their usury was, after all, not so sordid as is commonly
supposed.
The civil law for patricians was quite different from that for
plebeians, since they had come together from different states;
the twelve tables which laid the foundation of the political
principles by which Rome was to be governed, also first intro-
duced one civil law for all. Among our own ancestors, too,
the law was not varied according to geographical position but
accordhag to persons. The native population of Italy dowji to
the twelfth century had the Roman law, while the Germanic
population had the Lombardic and Salic laws; but when the
ancient municipalities were abolished and the differeiit elements
united, it became customary to draw up regulations binding
upon the whole population ; the people more and more forgot
their old peculiar institutions, and thus gradually arose the
statutes of each of the Italian towns. The law of debt for the
patricians was liberal, but that affecting the plebeians was
severe; it was in force among the plebeians themselves, but
became dangerous to them only in as far as it also existed
between them and the patricians. As soon as there is a possi-
bility of becoming involved in debt, the number of smaU landed
proprietors decreases from century to century. A comparison
of the registers of Tivoli in the fifteenth century with those
of the present day, shews that the number of landed proprietoi's
was then fifty times greater than at present.
Tlie general law of debt which is found in the East, among
the Greeks and the Northern nations, as well as among the
Romans, was, that the person who borrowed money pledged
liimself and his family for the debt. Plutarch, in the life of
Solon, relates that at Athens there were nearly a thousand
bondmen for debt, who, unless they were able to pay, were
sold into slavery. Among the Romans this personal responsi-
bility existed in the most rigorous form: a man might pay his
debt by personal labour, or sell his property for a certain time,
or, if the case was a very hard one, for life, or even sell his
own person, whereby his children wlio were yet in their father's
])ower, likewise, per aes ct libram, came into the mancvpium of
the pundiaser, but on condition of tlieir being permitted to
THE ADDICTUS OR NEXUS. 133
ransom tliemselvcs. In tliis state a person continued until he
recoyeved himself per aes et libram. The personal imprisonment
of insolvent debtors in our own times is a remnant of that
a ncient law, but has become me?ningless, because a more
humane feeling has abrogated the other part. The ancient
Germans too might transfer their free allodia and their persons
to another and become liis clients.
In order to escape becoming an addictiis^ a man who borrowed
money might sell his property for a time as security, but then
he was bound in conscience to redeem it after a certain period.
Fides obliged the creditor not to deprive the debtor of the
opportunity of ransoming himself, his family, or his property;
hence Fides was so important a goddess among the Romans,
and without her, the severitv of the law would have ruined
CA'-ery thing. If a person failed to pay his debt, his person
was forfeited to his creditor, that is, he became fduciarius in
his mancipium ; this, however, could not be done simply by
manum injicere, but required the addiction by the praetor; the
creditor claimed the debtor's person with these words: Hunc
ego hominem meum esse aio ex jure Quiritium. at which declara-
tion the five witnesses and the libripens before v>diom the con-
tract had been concluded, had undoubtedly to be present. The
praetor then fixed a time, and if after its expiration payment
was not made, and the debtor was unable to prove the Uheratio
per aes et libram, he was addicted to his creditor. The ancient
Attic law was just the same ; but Solon abolished it and intro-
duced in its stead the Attic law of security, from which the
later Roman law was derived; for the equites in their import-
ant monej' transactions endeavoured to escape from the severity
of the law of debt, by appointing foreigners as their agents,
who were not subject to the Roman law. Hence arose the
laws respecting the chirographa and cenfesimoe, for at Rome
small discount business was not done at all. The addictus was
called nejxus because he was vexu vinctus : nexus or nexum
originally denoted every transaction that was made in the
presence of witnesses by traditio and by weighing the money,
which afterwards was customary only in cases of fictitious
purchases, whereby a certain right of property was secured to
the creditor in case of a neglect of payment.
A debtor might frequently pay his debt by labour, and an
able-bodied man might employ his service very usefidly at
134 BONDAGE FOR DEBT.
times when labour fetched high wages; supposing the son of
an old man who had pledged himself was strong, the father
would sell him to his creditor, and when the debt was paid by
his labour he became free again. But the interest increased
so enormously, that it was very difficult for a poor debtor to
get rid of his burthen; if however he worked as a nexus, he at
least paid the interest. During the period of such labour, his
creditor exercised over him all the authority of a master over
his slave. The numerous class of persons who paid the debts
of others in labour is expressly mentioned by the ancients.
Bondage for debt, however, might also arise in another way.
A person might become a debtor even without a contract; for
example, by neglecting to pay a legacy, or the wages of a
labourer engaged in his service; moi'eover, if a person com-
mitted a ci'ime he was, according to the Roman law, obliged
to pay to the injured party a certain compensation, obligatio ex
delicto. All these circumstances constituted a second class of
debtors ; and in these cases there existed adclicfio without nexus,
as was established by the twelve tables. The praetor con-
demned a thief to pay to the person robbed double the
amount of the stolen property; and if this was not done within
a fixed period, he assigned him to the injured party as a bond-
man. In like manner, if a person asserted that another had
purchased a thing from him without paying for it, and if the
latter could not deny the debt (aes confessum), the creditor
inight demand the debtor's addiction for a time {viiiculam fidei),
whereby the other was nati;rally frightened to such a degree
that he made every effort to pay. It is only to such cases that
the expression vinculum fidei referred, and not to the nexum ;
for in the former, a vindicatio might take place, and the keep-
ing of a contract is out of the question. When a Koman stood
in nexu, that is, when he had sold himself to another in case of
his being insolvent, as the ]\Ierchant of Venice did to Shylock,
he pledged his property in land, however much it might be
burthened with debts, for the laAv of the twelve tables was nexo
solutoque idem jus esto ; the oddictus was in quite a different
condition, for he belonged to his creditor and had no power
over his own person. In this manner, we may clear up the
mystery which appears in our books, when we read that debtors
who had sold themselves (that is ncxi) nevertheless served in
DISCONTENT OF THE PLEBS. 135
the legions.^ Livy does not enter into the question, because
he does not see the difficulty ; and Dionysius, who does see it,
gets into inextricable perplexities.
This law of debt was in a certain sense as necessary as our
strict laws relating to bills of exchange ; but abuse is unavoid-
able, for the wealthy are not always merciful, but harsh, and
keep to the severity of the law. The worship of ]\Iammon
prevailed at Rome as much as in some modern countries, and
the severity of the actual law was very oppressive ; a further
aggravation was its being only one-sided, for when a patrician
Avas in difficidtv, his cousins or his clients were obliged to assist
him, whereas plebeians were in most cases obliged to borrow
money from the patricians. A plebeian, when given over to
his creditor, might find himself variously circumstanced : he
might indeed have a mild master who allowed him to ransom
himself by his labour, but he might also have fallen into the
hands of a heartless tyrant, Avho locked him up in his ergas-
tulum, put him in chains, and by harsh treatment endeavoured
to induce his relatives to come forward to liberate him.
LECTURE XV.
Such was the condition of the law about the year A.u. 260,
when all at once a state of extraordinary general distress arose,
such as had never existed before, but such as we meet with
again about a hundred years later, after the Gallic calamity.
The cause of it must be sought for in the war of Porsena, whence
we may infer that the war belongs to a considerably later time
than that to which it is assigned by Livy. The distress led to
disturbances, concerning the origin of which Livy's accouut
may be tolerably well founded. An aged captain covered with
scars, had become the bondman of his creditor, because his house
' Among the commentators of Livy there are ingenious and learned men, who
have -wTitten on the condition of the tiexi ; hut all their investigations have gone
in the wrong direction, if we except the explanation given by Donjut. But
those who wrote after him did not profit by his teaching, but returned to the old
errors, a>:, for instance, Drakenborcli, though he quotes Doujat: a proof how
learned men witliout a knowledge uf the world may err in sucli things. — N.
13() DISCOllD AT KOME.
had been burnt down and liis property carried away; he es-
caped from the dungeon in which he had been most cruelly
treated by his master, and appeared in the market-]3luce
famished, covered with rags, and disfigured with bloody stripes.
The sight of the man produced a great commotion, and the
plebeians generally, both those who were similarly circiim-
stanced and those who were not, refused to obey their tyrants
any longer. Livy's account of the manner in which the tumult
spread further and further, and how the senate at first provoked
the people and was afterwards frightened by them, is exqui-
sitely beautiful, and shews a profound knowledge of human
nature; but the detail cannot be regarded as an actual tradition,
Imt is only an historical novel. At the very time when the
senate and the consuls had come to the fearful conviction that
they could not rule over the commonalty unless it was willing
to obey, the Volscians, hearing of the discord at Rome, either
actually advanced, or a report was spread by the patricians
that they were on their march against Rome. But however
this may be, the senate resolved to levy an ami}'. According
to the original constitution, the senate alone had not the power
to declare war, but a proposal had to be made to the curies
which had to sanction it: according to the Servian legislation,
the proposal had to be brought before the centuries also; but
these things were then no longer thought of, and the annalists
mention only the senate. The senate, then, resolved to levy
an ariny, and as the burden of the infantry fell upon the plebs
alone, their juniores were called up according to tribes (nominu-
tim cilahantur); theii* answering was called nomen dare, and
their refusing nomen abnuere. Levies were on the whole made
in the same manner, down to the latest times of the republic.
But when the plebeians, either in consequence of oppression or
for other reasons, refused to serve^ they did not answer {non
reajwndehant) ; and such a silence was the most awful thing
that could happen. As on this occasion, the plebeians did not
answer the call, the consuls knew not what to do; and the
plebeians loudly shouted that they would not be so foolish as
to shed their blood for their tyrants; the booty, they said, was
not shared by them, but was transferred to the publicum (the
chest of the patricians) and not into the aerarium, and that they
were becoming more and moie impoverished, being obliged to
pledge themselves and their families to the patricians and serve
APPIUS CLAUDIUS. 137
as boudsmen. The patricians were divided among themselves;
and Livy relates that the minores natu among the patres were
particularly vehement in their opposition, by which he probably
means the minores, that is, the Luceres : young patricians can-
not possibly be conceived as members of the senate at that
time, for it was then a real 'yepovaria. The consuls (a.U. 259)
belonged to different parties ; Appius Claudius represented the
interests of the wildest oligarchs, while Servilius was mild. As
the danger was threatening, mildness alone could lead to a
desirable result, and all attempts to levy the army by force
were disgracefully defeated. Servilius then caused himself to
be empowered by the senate to act as mediator. By an
edict he summoned all whose persons were pledged, and pro-
mised them that they, as well as their children and relatives,
should be safe as long as the war lasted, during which time no
creditor should be allowed to enforce the law. Hereupon the
plebeians flocked to the standards in large numbers. With the
army thus formed, Servilius marched into the field and re-
turned victorious. After the close of the war, he promised the
army to exert all his influence with the senate to obtain the
cancelling of the contracts of debt; but the senate granted
nothing, the army was disbanded, Appius Claudius undertook
the administration of justice, and without any regard to his
colleague's promise, consigned all those who had been on the
field of battle to their creditors or compelled them to enter
into a nexum. The remainder of the year passed away in the
greatest commotions. The succeeding consuls, A. Virginius
and T. Vetusius (a.u. 260), were both moderate men, a proof
that they were elected by the centuries; for the curies would
have chosen the most infuriated oligarchs. The senate re-
mained obdurate ; the consuls could produce no effect upon it
or upon the patricians. Another attempt was made to levy an
army, but the same diflicultics presented themselves; the con-
suls were accused of cowardice, but those who were presmnp-
tuous enough openly to attack the plebs, were in the end
obliged to save their fives by flight. The real danger existed
only on market days; for the plebs were the peasantry, and
had so much to do that they could not come to the city except
on market days, and when they were specially summoned.
Agriculture in Italy requires extraordinary care, for a good
harvest cannot be expected unless the fields are weeded several
138 MAKCLS VALEIUUS.
times during the summer. The Romans plough their fields
five, six, or seven times, and continue the Weeding until the
corn is about three inches high. It is almost incredible how
much labour agriculture requires in the south, though the
produce likewise is incredible. Hence the country people
were fully occupied the whole year round, and had no time to
attend to matters which were not absolutely necessary; the
only plebeians generally at Rome, were those residing in the
city. Hence the patricians felt safe: they had among them-
selves vigorous men, and were supported by large numbers of
clients, so that the plebeians contained in the four city tribes
unquestionably formed the minority, and thus it becomes intel-
ligible how the patricians were enabled to control the plebeians
even without a standing or mercenary army. The burghers
in German towns likewise, as at Cologne, kept their ascendancy
over the commonalty, although the latter was far more numer-
ous. Such a body of oligarchs maintains itself even by its
pride and by having many points of union. So long as the
nature of the plebs was unknown, it must have been incon-
ceivable that the patricians were not in greater danger, since
if in any town the populace (for thus the plebeians are called
in some books) rises against the wealthy, the latter are easily
overpowered.
As the attempt to levy a second army failed, the question
was: Wliat should be done? Some proposed that the promises
of Servilius should be kept and the contracts of debt cancelled ;
but Appius declared that the spirit of the rebels must be broken,
and that a dictator ought to be appointed. The dictatorship
had been instituted for the purpose of having a magistracy not
subject to the restrictions of the consulship, and of avoiding
not only an appeal to the curies, but also that to the tribes
which had been introduced by Valerius. Appius wished that
the dictator should seize and ])ut to death every one that
refused to serve; but this senseless advice would have been
followed by the most fearful rebellion. The foolish assembly
indeed adopted the plan, but the good genius of Rome led the
people to elect as dictator IMarcus Valerius^, a man distinguished
for his mildness and kind feelings towards the plebeians. Some
' This is tlic iiaTiic trivcn to liiin in all our authorities; and Dionysius alone
less correctly calls liini Manias A'alerins, whicji is a mere invention, because Mar-
cus was saifl to liave fallen in tiie liattle of lake Kegillus. — N.
RESIGNATION OF VALERIUS. 139
call l>iin a gentilis, and others a brother of P. Valerius Poplicola.
He renewed the edict of Servilius; and as the Volscians,
Aequians, and Sabines were in arms, he formed an army with-
out any difficulty. The statement that it consisted of ten
legions is truly ridiculous. He gave to each of the consuls a
part of the army, reserving one for himself The Romans
were again victorious, and on his return he demanded of the
senate that the promises made to the people should be fulfilled;
but the senate disregarded all promises, and declared that the
law miTst be complied with. Valerius might now have joined
the plebs or withdrawn: he did the latter, and resigned his
dictatorship. One consular army, or perhaps both, were still
under arms, and the patricians would not allow them to return,
because as long as an army was in the field, they could exer-
cise control over it. Dionysius expressly states that by a
Valerian law the consuls had, by virtue of their impeyium, un-
limited power so long as they were at a distance of one mile
from Rome, and they could accordingly inflict military punish-
ment upon any one who was obnoxious to them without a
court martial. It was for this reason that the senate would not
allow the army to return. This was a detestable policy; for
the army could not be kept in the field for ever, and the whole
safety of the senate depended on the conscientiousness of the
plebs, who it was expected would not violate their military
oath. The insurrection, however, did break out in the camp,
though with great moderation. It is said that the soldiers at
first intended to slay the consul, in order to be released from
the oath which they had taken to him personally; but they
only refused obedience, appointed L. Sicinius Bellutus their
leader, crossed the Anio in a body, and at a distance of three
or four miles from it encamped en a hill which was afterwards
consecrated, and hence called Mons Sacer. The whole plebeian
population of the city emigrated and encamped there, and
those who remained at Rome consisted of the patricians with
their slaves, and of the wives and children of the emigrants.
The patricians however did not take the latter as their
hostages; and the plebeians, on their part, abstained from all
devastations and only foraged in the neighbourhood to satisfy
their immediate wants. The patricians now acted a little more
like human beings: as long as their authority was ]iot endan-
gered, they indulged in every kind oi' effrontery and oppression,
140 PUSILLANIMITY OF THE PATRICIANS.
as we find was invariably the case down to the passing of the
Iloi'tensian law; but as soon as their power was set at defiance,
they became pusillanimous, and every new struggle ended in
disgrace. They fancied the plebeians would have no courage,
and said to one another: " This time they are sure to lay down
their arms ; we need only assume a threatening attitude." One
almost feels giddy at the contemplation of such madness, and
yet it will be repeated ever and anon as long as the world lasts.
The clahns of justice cannot be suppressed by arms; andthe
patricians forgot that they had to deal with a noble but infuri-
ated animal. Wlien, therefore, the plebeians planted their
standards on the sacred mount, the eyes of the patricians were
all at once opened. In the city the plebs possessed only two
quarters^, the Aventine with the Vallis Murcia, and the Esqui-
line, both very well fortified, provided with gates and un-
questionably occupied by armed garrisons. The plebeians
therefore might have taken Rome without difficulty, as their
friends would have opened the gates to them ; but it would
have been necessary to take by storm the other hills, all of
which were fortified, as well as the Forum. If the plebeians
had done this their country would have perished, for the sur-
rounding nations would not have remained quiet; the conduct
of the patres therefore appears perfectly mad, and it is incon-
ceivable that the plebs once in arms did not proceed further.
An explanation seems to be contained in the fact that the
Latins were then at peace with Rome; and with the"r assist-
ance the senate might have defied the plebeians. It is a
remai'kable phenomenon deserving great attention, that in
confederate republics the equality of their constitutions has no
influence whatever upon their furnishing miitual aid, for people
living under a democratic government frequently support the
aristocratic government of another nation. In the great insur-
rection of Lucerne and Berne in the year 1657, t1ie democratic
cantons supported the oligarchic governments against the pea-
sants. Such phenomena explain how the senate could maintain
itself under the circumstances above described; allusions from
the annals to this source of strength for the patricians occur in
Dionysius, where Appius says, that the Latins would be very
^ III the middle up;e.s, t\\{.' popolanii sis far as tlie Corsu were not gcmiiiie Romans,
hut Shivouian.s and iVlhanese, who, under Innocent the VIII., had settkMl there,
and continued to speak their own hmguagc as late ai? the fifteenth century. — N.
PEACE BETWEEN THE TWO ESTATES. 141
willing to su]iport the senate against tlie commonalty, if the
right of isopolity were granted to them. xUthough the senate
and the patres made no use of the suggestions, yet it was
important for them to know that should matters come to
extremities they might have recoiu'se to such an expedient.
LECTURE XVL
According to the statement of Dionysius, the secession lasted
four months, from August to December ; but this is merely a
false combination based upon the fact, that the tribunes at all
times entered upon their office on the 10 th of December.
There was also a tradition tliat the dictator drove in the ctaviis
on the ides of September, so that at that time there were no
consuls at Rome. The distm"bances, moreover, were said to
have broken out under the consuls Yu'ginius and Vetusius;
Dionysius accordingly concluded that these consuls must have
laid down their office at the end of August, and that the insur-
rection lasted four months. If the office of the tribunes had
never been interrupted, it would not be difficult to conceive
that the time of their appointment was regulated in the same
manner at first as afterwards; but Dionysius overlooked the
fact that during the decemvirate, the tribuneship was abolished,
and it is hardly conceivable that the tribunes should afterwards
have re-entered upon their office on the same day as before, —
they undoubtedly resumed their functions as soon as they were
again allowed to assemble. The consuls entered upon their
office on the 1st of August; and it seems certain that the peace
between the two estates w-as concluded by the new consuls,
Vetusius and Yirginius. The secession cannot have lasted
more than about a fortnight, for the city could not have held
out much longer, and a famine would have occurred if the
legions had remained in possession of the fields. The rapidity
of Livy's account also suggests only a short duration.
I believe it is now generally acknowledged that Roman his-
tory henceforth increases in aiithenticity ; where absurdities and
imposbibiliiics are mixed up with it, confidence in the whole
142 HUMILIATION OF THE PATRICIANS.
may indeed be shaken; but if we remove from history that
whidi is strange and incredible, and give a clear exposition of
the real relations of life, let no one say that thereby history is
injured or loses in dignity: such sentiments are unhealthy and
diseased.
The patricians perceived when too late that they had gone
too far, and were compelled to yield: in point of form they
were obliged to submit to a great humiliation by sending
ambassadors to the plebeians. The list of the ten ambassadors
given by Dionysius is certainly authentic and taken from the
libri augurales : forgeries would indeed have been carried far
if such names were spurious. The end of the secession can
only be understood by forming a clear notion of the state of
affairs : we must remember that the government in the city
could not only defend itself but could command also the allies,
who had taken their oath to the Roman state, that is to the
senate and populus, and looked upon the plebeians as rebels,
so that it was by no means the numerical superiority of either
of the two estates, which decided the question. A formal
peace was negotiated by the feciales as between two free nations ;
the patricians sent off ambassadors, and conducted the negotia-
tions, notwithstanding their great humiliation, with a prudence
in form which deserves our admiration; their object was to
get out of the difficulties in which their mistakes had involved
them as cheaply as possible. They could effect the reconcilia-
tion only by strengthening themselves externally by their
allies, or by dividing the plebeians. To do the latter, two ways
were open to them : they might either gain over to their side
the plebeians of distinction, whereby, however, they would
have weakened their own power, or they might separate the
mass of the plebeians from their leaders. The latter was the
surest means. The debts of insolvents were cancelled, the
addicti were declared free, and the nexum where it existed was
dissolved, but the law of debt was not altered; an amnesty
likewise was of course stipulated for. The cancelling of debts
was no great loss to the creditors, since the interest paid had
long ago exceeded the capital; fifty years later the rate of
interest was reduced to ten per cent, but at that time it may
have been fifty per cent. . Sully did similar things.
The only permanent result of the secession was the establish-
ment of the office of the tribuni plebis, whom avc :ire in the
THE TUIBUNES. 143
habit of calling tribunes of the people. This was not in reality
an innovation : on the restoration of the tribuneship after the
second secession, the commonalty had twenty tribunes, that is
one for each tribe, two of whom were invested with real power.
The tribes consisted of two decuries, and each of them had its
president, just as in the senate there were ten decuries, each
of which had a primus, who together formed the college of the
decern primi. Symmetrical arrangements occur everywhere in
ancient constitutions, whence we may deduce from a given
fact one which is not given. When therefore we read that
the first tribunes were two in number who elected three more,
we may safely infer that of the actual twenty or twenty-one
tribunes, these two were the principal, and that under the new
circumstances they only advanced to a higher sphere of official
activity. The difference undoubtedly was that the earlier
tribunes had been elected each by his own tribe, just as the
phylarchs in the Greek states were chosen each by his own
phyle, whereas the new tribunes were elected by the whole
commonalty. The names of the first tribimes are C. Licinius
and L. Albinius; and Sicinius, who was the commander of the
plebes during their secession, is mentioned as one of the three
that were subsequently added. The plebeians who could not
recover the rights which the Servian constitution had granted
to them were obliged to be content with a protection against
oppression, and their new magistracy was therefore instituted
auxilii ferendi gratia ; the persons of the tribunes were by an
oath declared inviolable {corpora sacrosancta), so that they
could step in between the rulers and the oppressed and protect
the latter. Considering the espi'it dc corps and the official
power of the patricians, a tribune in former times would have
had a difficult and useless task in bringing an accusation
against a consul, since there existed another consul with equal
powers, and both were backed by all the patricians ; the consul
would have ordered his lictors to seize and chastise a tribune
who dared to make an appeal against him to the commonalty.
But whoever henceforth laid hands on a tribune was outlawed,
and if the consul did not give effect to the declaration of out-
lawry, the tribune might summon the consul after the expira-
tion of his office before the court of the curies, or perhaps even
before that of the tribes. It was formerly customary in speak-
ing of Roman institutions not to make any distinctions between
144 NATURE OF THE TRIBUNESIIIP.
the (lifFcrcut periods; thus Justus Lipsius, an ingenious and
very learned man, who as a philologer is infinitely above me,
has by his authority done much mischief in Roman antiquities:
whenever a magistracy or a military arrangement is mentioned,
he and his followers speak of it as if it had always existed, and
a tribune at the end of the third century is conceived as a
magistrate with the same power as in the time of Cicero, as if
he had at first possessed the same right of intercession and of
making legislative proposals as afterwards.^ T1ie first tribunes
can perhaps scarcely be called a magistracy of the commonalty,
and certainly not of the state : they were in fact nothing else
but persons in a position analogous to that of a modern ambas-
sador, whose duty it is in a foreign state to protect the subjects
of his own sovereign.
Hitherto the patricians had exercised their power without
any control, and the plebeians had no share in the administra-
tion : hence arose the necessity for a magistracy which shoidd
be able to afford protection against magistrates, as well as
private individuals, whenever members of the plebeian order
should be injured or ill treated. The house of a tribune,
therefore, was open day and night; he was not allowed to quit
the city, but, like a physician, was obliged to be always ready
to give his assistance. This idea is grand and peculiarly
Roman, for nothing analogous occurs in the whole historv of
Greece. The tribunes moreover had the right to assemble the
commonalty and to bring proposals before it; but at first we
find scarcely any traces of this right having been exercised.
The resolutions passed by the plebes on the proposal of a
tribune were called plebiscifa, while the resolutions passed by
the patricians were termed leges. An allusion to this occurs in
a passage of Livy, where the Etruscans say that the Romans
now consisted of two nations, each with its own magistrates
and its own laws, an expression the importance of which Livy
did not perceive. It may be said in general that Livy did not
alter tlie materials he found, but only omitted Avhat he thought
obscure or unnecessary. The plebiscita did not at first afl^ect
the whole of the state; and it was not till more than twenty
years later that they acquired the character of resolutions,
' The siinic luis been tlic caso witli Roman topography, i'ur huildings which
occur side \>y side on the Capitol have I)Cen regarded as works of the same
period; hnl men of sense hke Sarti aot in a very different spirit. — N.
ELECTION OF THE TRIBUNES. 145
which might become laAv (a. u. 283). The only real magis-
trates of the plebeians were the nediles, a name which was also
given to the local magistrates among the Latins; it is very
probable tliat they acted as judges in disputes among the
plebeians themselves, for the tribunes in the earliest times were
not judges, though it may sometimes have happened that an
appeal from the aediles was brought before them. In the civil
law no change seems to have been made at that time.
The powers of the tribunes were thus very slender and
modest: they were partly of a negative character, and partly
administrative in a limited way, but not at all legislative, and
I do not believe that the tribunes had the right to propose
any change in the civil law even for their own order: however,
their power was a seed from wliich a tree was destined to grow
up that was one day to overshadow all others. It is a
singular circumstance that the election of the tribunes was
committed to the centuries, since it would have been far more
natural to assign it to the tribes; but this is another proof hoAV
small were the advantages which the plebeians obtained by
their first secession, for in the centuries the patricians exercised
great influence through their clients, and thus about ten years
later the patricians even succeeded in forming a party among
the tribunes. The statement that they were elected by the
curies is obviously false, but we may infer from it at any rate
that they required the sanction of the curies, in order to prevent
the election of obnoxious persons. The right of veto claimed
by the English government on the election of Irish Catholic
bisliops is of the same kind. According to Livy, this original
arrangement ceased even before the Publilian law, by which
the election was committed to the tribes, and previousl}-- to
which Piso supposes that there existed only two tribunes. I
believe that the number five is indeed of later origin, but I do
not think it likely that it did not exist before the Publilian
law ; for as this number answers to the five classes, how should
it have been introduced at a time when tlie election no lono-er
belonged to the classes, but to the tribes? It seems to me
quite probable that the patricians, under the pretext of a fair
settlement, contrived to fj^ain some advantage for themselves
also, and in this manner I account for the otherwise inexpli-
cable circumstance, that ten years later we find the curies
electing the consuls instead of the centuries; it was only a
VOL. I. L
14G COMPACT BETWEEN THE ORDERS.
concession made to the plebeians that the election of one consnl
was given to the centuries, Avhile the otiier, down to the res-
toration of the consulship after the time of the decemvirs,
remained in the hands of the curies. It is not impossible that
an assignment of lands Avas made ; and it is very probable that
a promise Avas given to restore the ancient legal relation of the
ac/er publicus. The result of the secession was by no means as
decided a victory of the plebeians over the patricians as our
historians describe it: a firm basis had indeed been gained,
and the plebeians subsequently made the best use of it, but
the fruits could not be reaped without the greatest exertion.
The contract between the two orders was now solemnly
concluded, like a peace, by a sacrifice, a senatus consultum, and
a resolution of the curies on the one hand, and of the plebeians,
who Avere yet in arms, on the other : a curse was pronounced
on those who should ever attempt to break the treaty, but the
patricians did all they could to shake off the yoke. The
deputies of the plebes and the dfcem primi of the senate offered
up the sacrifice in common: order returned and the state of
affairs improved, but as that which ought to have been done
was not done, the causes of new commotions and ferments for
a long time to come Avere left in operation. I have called this
treaty a peace, a Avord Avhich is also used elsewhere on similar
occasions: the Magna Charta of Liege, establishing the union
betAveen the burghers and commonalty, was called In paix de
Fexhe"
The Latins were noAV rewarded for the service thev had
done the senate, as is expressly mentioned by Dionysius on
the authority of the excellent document Avhich forms the
groundwork of his account: they obtained the right of isopolity
{jus rmmicipii) in its original meaning, through the treaty of
Sp. Cassius, which 1 haA^e already mentioned.
These events Avhich avc see in a sufficiently clear light,
are succeeded by the same darkness as hangs over the pre-
ceding period, and for a time we have nothing but the
Fasti. Livy relates the history of Coriolanus soon after the
peace betAveen the two estates; but this cannot be its proper
place. When a leaf of a book has been misplaced, it must
be put right, if you do not Avish its author to talk nonsense.
- Tlie Gcriiiaii expression for such ncovcnaiit is liichtimg. — N.
DATE OF CORIOLANUS. 147
The same is the case when an historical fact is assigned to a
wrong time. I see no reason why I should not believe that
during a famine at Rome a Siceliot king sent a supply of corn
to the city; but tyrants do not appear in Sicily till some
Olympiads after the time in which the history of Coriolanus is
placed. I believe that Coriolanus was first impeached by the
plebes, but no one would have dared to do this before the
Publilian law. The Romans under Sp. Cassius could not have
disputed about the distribution of the ager jiubUciis, if, as we
read, the Volscians had advanced as far as Lavinium. I further
believe that a L. Junius Brutus introduced the severe punish-
ment for disturbing the tribunes while making their proposals,
but he who woidd assign the history of Coriolanus to the year
A.u. 262, could not possibly believe all these points. For this
reason, I maintain that the story of Coriolanus does not belong-
to this period, but to some time after the Publilian law. Cn. or
C Marcius may perhaps have maintained himself in the Avar
against the Antiatans, but he cannot have conquered Corioli,
for in the same year this town belonged to the league of the
Latin towns. The whole histor}^ must either be rejected as a
fiction, or be assigned to qiiite a different time. But yet another
combination has been attempted. The temple of Fortima Mulie-
bris on the Latin road between the fourth and fifth milestone
happened to stand on the spot where Coriolanus after his emi-
gration was encamped and became reconciled. Xow the
entreaties of his mother and the matrons, which may indeed
be really historical, were connected with the name of Fortuna
MuUehris ; and it was accordingly believed that that temple
though the time of its foundation was known, had been erected
in consequence of the event above referred to. But Fortuna
Miiliebris corresponds to Fortuna Yirilis, who had her temple
at Rome, there being a male and a female divinity like Tellus
and Tellurao, just as the same contrast is expressed in animus
and nnima.^
^ Sec above p. 80.
l2
1-48 I>IVlS]ON OF THE VOLSCIAN WAR?<.
LECTURE XYII.
LiA''T says that he should iiot wonder, if his readers were
Avearied by his accounts of the wars with the Volscians and
Aequians; and certainly every one must have had this feeling
as soon as he became acquainted with Livy. The uniformity of
these wars spoils the pleasure we have in reading the first
decade. Wliat rendered them tedious to Livy, was the fact
that he did not di^ade them into periods, and as, with the
exception of what we read in Dionysius, he is our only autho-
rity, it is difficult, and only to a certain degree possible, to
obtain a clear view of the wars. The first period extends
from A.u 280 to A.U. 290: the beginning is involved in great
obscurity, and the conquests of Tarqulnius Superbus are very
indefinite; afterwards the Volscians, under the name of Aii-
runcans, Invaded the Latin territory; then follow a number of
little wars till about a.u. 290, and during the latter years the
Volscians appear in possession of Antlum, but lost it again. In
the second period, things assumed a dlfi^erent aspect: the
Aequians took a vigorous part in the Volscian war, Latium
was completely crushed, and the war turned out very unfortu-
nately for the Romans, Latins and Hernicans. This lasted till
about A.U. 296, when the Romans concluded peace with the
Volscians properly so called, and thus warded oif the danger.
The terms of the peace are very remarkable. La the third
period, the Romans continued the war against the Aequians
alone; it was not attended with very great danger and was
carried on languidly by both parties. There then followed a
fresh Volscian war against the Ecetrans, who were allied with
the Aequians. This period, being the fourth, begins with the
great victory of A. Postumius Tubertus (a.u. 324); hence-
forward the Romans made steady progress until the Gallic war;
they took most of the Volscian towiis and greatly weakened
the Aequians. Then followed the Gallic calamity, in which
the Aequians also may have suffered severely. Afterwards
(this is the fifth period), the wars break out anew, but with
(juite a different character: the Aequians were then an insig-
nificant enemy, the Volscians were in reality united with
TllEATY WITU THE HERNICANS. 149
the Latins, and like the Latins themselves, fought for their
independence. By dividing the wars into these five periods, they
lose their intolerable sameness, and, at the same time, it becomes
clear how the Volscians were enabled to maintain themselves.
I shall not dwell upon the details of these wars, for even the
strongest memory cannot retain them; nor are the accounts
of them authentic, because Livy, being tired of them, read
his authorities carelessly, and has given only a hurried descrip-
tion. It must, however, be observed that after tlie treaty with
the Latins, the enemy advanced in great force but made no
important conquest until a later period ; for Circeii continued
to be a Latin town as late as the time of Sp. Cassius.
An event of great relative importance for Rome was the
treaty with the Hernicans (a.u. 267). The right of isopolity
must have existed between them even before, if it be true that
in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus they took part in the fes-
tival of Jupiter Latiaris; a Roman tradition mentioned them
as allies even of Tullus Hostilius. After the Etruscan calamity,
they must have deserted Rome like the Latins and the Tyr-
rhenian coast towns, but the present treaty restored their old
relations in a manner which was most advantageous for thetn.
The Romans, Latins, and Hernicans were put on a footing of
perfect equality, and the booty, as well as money and UukI,
was to be divided among them in equal portions; when a
colony was sent out, it received colonists from all the three
people. Whether the annalists took a correct view of the
matter (Livy and Dionysius differ very much from each other),
or whether they merely supposed that as peace was concludet-l
a war must have preceded, cannot be determined; but I am
inclined to believe that tlie alliance was the result of a mutual
want, since both nations were surrounded by the Volscians and
Aequians, and the fortified towns of the Hernicans were of
great importance to the Romans: a war between tlie Romans
and Hernicans would at least have been very foolish. The
Hernicans lived in five towns, Anagnia, Alatrvun, Ferentina,
Frusino and Verulae, which extended from east to west and
are remarkable for their cyclopean fortifications. According
to statements in Servius and the Veronensian Scholiast on
Virgil, whom Mai has edited incorrectly, the Hernicans were
descended IVom the Marsians and Sabines; their name is said
to have been derived from hernae which in the Sabine language
150 THE HEKNICANS.
signified rocks.^ It is strange that a nation in its own language
should have designated itself by a mere surname, especially as
the Marsians, INlarruciniaus and Pelignlans lived on far higher
mountains. The Sabine origin of the Hernicans is therefore
somewhat suspicious, but still it might be true, even though
the derivation of their name were a mere fancy. But another
difficulty is this: if they proceeded from the ]\Iarsians they
must have forced their way through the Aeqidans, which is
quite improbable; and in after-times there appears no connec-
tion whatever between them and the Marsians. Julius Hyginus
declares them to have been Pelasgians.
The Hernicans were a remarkable people: they resisted the
Romans and were respected by them on account of their bril-
liant valour : the treaty with them is historically certain, and
moreover that it was concluded not only with the Romans but
also with the Latins ; whence they received a third of the booty.
But there were nevertheless Roman antiquaries — and Dionysius
allowed himself to be deceived by them — who imagined that
the Romans alone had the supremacy, and hence received two-
thirds of the booty, and the Latins the remaining third ; the
Romans then, it is said, generously gave to the Hernicans one
half of their share. But if the Romans and Latins together
concluded an alliance with that brave people, it was no more
than just that each of them should give up one-sixth of the
booty; and Rome, according to Dionysius' own account, did
not possess the supremacy over the Latins at all. The connec-
tion must afterwards have been dissolved by some arrangement,
but the fact that the Hernicans insisted on retaining their pri-
vileges, subsequently led to their destruction.
Sp. Cassius is far the most distinguished man of those times,
in the obscure accounts of which the principal memorable
events are connected with his name; first the treaty with the
Sabines (a.u. 254), undoubtedly with isopolity to judge from
the census lists; and next this treaty with the Hernicans. In
the latter the relation of Rome to the Hernicans was put upon
a footing quite different from what it had been before, just as
the relation of Athens to her allies became altered about 01.
100 after the battle of Naxos. When Athens founded her
second maritime pc)\v(M-, the towns were far less dependent
than before, and Demosthenes, in forming his great confederacy,
acting with all the wisdom of an intelligent statesman, did not
' .\ni(lt c(imi>nrcs llic (n'riiian Firn. — N.
sr. CASSius. lol
demand the supremacy for Athens, but merely that she should
be the soul of the league. Traitors like -^schines charged him
with degrading the dignity of Athens, because the Athenian
deputy was not to have more influence than one from a
Euboean town: they said that they wished to establish the
supremacy of Athens, but they were liars. If Demosthenes
had lived in the time of Pericles, I do not think that he would
have acted with this spirit of moderation ; but his era was one,
in which every thing depended upon protecting the liberty
and independence of Greece against Philip ; hence he willingly
concluded peace with any town that wished it, and only en-
deavoured to direct by his intelligence and energy the pro-
ceedings of the confederacy. Rome was placed in the same
position by Cassius; and from this alone we must see that he
was a great man, with a keen eye and a sound judgment. The
Etruscan war had destroyed the Roman dominions on the
right bank of the Tiber, the Volscians and Aequians were
advancing, the coast towns were lost, and Rome was obliged
to do not what she Avished, liut what she could. Later histo-
rians, guided by a blind love for their country, wanted to deny
such a state of things ; and Livy and the writers whom Diouy-
sius followed, were full of absurd admiration of the greatness
oi their ancestors, and maintained that Rome had never been
weak. There may at that time have been fools or people like
^schines, who declared Cassius a traitor because he regulated
his conduct by the cii'cumstances of the case. In his third
consulship, after the treaty with the Ilernicans, he wished to
be just towards the plebeians also, and this leads us to speak
of his important agrarian law.
The nations of antiquity, in carrving on war, generally
followed a principle of law different from that now in force.
We regard war as a single combat between the genii of two
states or between two imaginary states; the individual is not
affected by it in regard to his person, liberty and property, and
the law of war accordingly intends that he should be injured
as little as possible, and that he should never be the immediate
object of hostility; he is endangered only as far as it cannot be
avoided. Among the ancients, on the other hand, hostilities
affected every one belonging to the state; with us, the con-
quered state indeed loses its right to rule over the country,
while every individual continues to exist, as if no war liad
152 THE JL'S AGKAKIUM.
taken place ; but the ancients entertained quite difFerent views.
They took the whole property of the conquered and reduced
them to a state of servitude; and this they did not only in
wars of extermination; but even in ordinary wars the inhabi-
tants of a conquered country lost their property: nay even
when a place voluntarily surrendered, the inhabitants with
their women and children came into the poAver of the con-
queror, as we see from the formula of a deditio. In the latter
case, the conqueror did not make the conquered his slaves, but
they became his clients, and their landed property fell entirely
into his hands.-. When such a place had suffered little and
seemed to be wortli preservation, the Romans sent to it 300
colonists, one from each gens, who were a (jypovpd or (fyvXaKrj,
and each of whom obtained two jugera of land tor a garden;
they further undoubtedly received the pasture land, either the
whole or at least the greater part of it, and one third of the
arable land, the remaining two thirds being left to the former
inhabitants. Such was the nature of the original colonists.
In other cases no colonists were sent out, it being thought
unnecessary to keep a garrison in a place; and then the former
inhabitants were sometimes driven ovit, but sometimes allowed
to remain on condition of their paying a tax, usually a tithe.
They then continued to live on their former property as tenants
at will, who might be dispossessed at the pleasure of their
masters. In those districts which had been laid waste in war
or from which the inhabitants had been expelled, the Romans
acted on a principle which is quite peculiar to themselves, and
to which we find no parallel in the history of Greece.
This principle, or tha jus agrarium, is to me the more inter-
esting, as it was the first point that led me to a critical inves-
tigation of Roman history; for in my earlier years I had
occupied myself more Avith the history of Greece. When, as a
young mail, I read Plutarch's biographies and Appian, the
nature of the agrarian law was a perfect riddle to me. It had
been believed that its intention was to interfere with property
and to fix a certain limit to its extent, so that a person having
above 500 jugera was deprived of the surplus, Avhich went to
mcrcase the possessions of plebeians at the expense of patrician
property. This crude notion of the law met with much favour,
as for example, with JMachiavolli, who lived in a revolutionary
age, and Avith Avhoni the means sanctified the end; and even
THE AGEK PUBLICUS. 153
with Montesquieu, who however looked upon a repetition of
the past as an impossibility, since in his time every idea of
revolution was quite foreign to men's minds. His example
shows how bold speculative men become in matters which are
unknown to them and appear impossible: at that time revolu-
tionary ideas were common in an apparently quite innocent
manner, even among men who during the revolution actually
embraced the very opposite side. There are persons who in times
of peace speak of their fondness for war, and revohitionary
ideas were similarly cherished dming the profound peace of
the eighteenth century. Such ideas, however, were dangerous
for Europe, and when the revolution broke out, many persons
at first found everything smooth and natural whose hearts were
afterw^ards broken.
As Plutarch and Appian expressly state that the law affected
only the yi] SrjfMoaia, it was clear that something else must be
understood by it than ordinary property. The first who ex-
pressed an opinion that it referred to the a^er pvblicus was
Heyne, in a program which he wrote at the time of the revo-
lutionary confiscations; but the question, what is the affei'
publicus remained unexamined, as in general Heyne often saw
what was right, but rarely carried it out. The historians who
after him wrote about the Gracchi, were quite in the dark
respecting the agrarian law. Once, when I did not yet see my
wav in these difficulties, I asked the great Fr. A. Wolf about
it; but he^ with all his extraordinary intellectual powers, had
the weakness to wish it to be believed that he knew everything,
and accordingly not knowing what answer to give me, he
assumed an air of not wishing to betray his secret, and said,
" I shall one day write about it." It was by a mere accident
that I was led to see the real nature of the ager pvblicus. It
was at the time when servitude was abolished in Holstein: the
peasants, both serfs and freemen, who had before transmitted
their estates as an inheritance from father to son, were deprived
of their possessions, and arbitrarily transferred to smaller and
inferior estates, while their former possessions were thrown
into large farms. These were revolting proceedings : in some
places the peasants opposed them, but were punished in con-
sequence, and the same was done even with estates occupied
by freemen. My feelings were roused with the highest indig-
nation, and the question naturally presented itself to my mind:
154: ANClExNT NOTIONS OF TUE FKANClllSE.
" What right have they to act in this manner?" This led me
to an investigation about leasehold property among different
nations, and thus I came to consider the agei' publicus among
the Romans.
The general idea of the Italian nations was that the franchise
was inseparable from the soil, and that all property in land
proceeded from the state. The soil was only the substratum
on which the pre-conceived citizenship rested. This bears a
great resemblance to the feudal notions: for according to the
strict feudal law there was no land at all without its feudal lord,
all land proceeded from the sovereign as the supreme feudal lord,
and then came the under-tenures, though practically this idea
never existed in its full rigour. Another analogy occurs in
the East, especially in the East Indies, where the sovereign is
the real owner of the soil^ and the peasant possesses it only on
precarious tenure. In the same manner, all landed property
among the Italian nations proceeded from the state.
LECTUEE XVIII.
When we read in Appian the statement that the ayer jjxiblicus
was partly used for colonies and domain land, and partly let
to farm (the latter statement is found in Plutarch only), we
naturally ask, How is it possible that difficulties could arise?
The Roman republic had only to make the law that no one
should have more than a certain number of lots, and all evil
consequences were prevented. But the fact is, that Appian
and Plutarch misunderstood the ambiguous expression of their
predecessor.^ I am not talking here about the letting of a
piece of land to farm, but of a tax which was imposed on the
estates; of corn the tenth {decuma), of fruit-bearing trees the
fifth {quint a), and of other things in pi-oportion. Now if the
corn was delivered in kind, the state must have built large
store-houses; for the cattle grazing-money had to be paid, and
' One dearly sees that this is not an invention of Appian, but an extract
from the liistory of tlic Gracchi liy Vosidonius, who was not inferior to Polybius,
and wliom Ap]>ian follows for tliat jicrioil, as, for the preceding one, he followed
Dionysius, rolyhiiis, Fat)in?:, and lastly, it would seem, Rutilius. — N.
THE TENTHS AND FIFTHS. — THE PUBLIC'ANI. 155
this of course yielded a different return in different years. For
these reasons a new system was adopted, and the produce of
those taxes was let in farm to publicani. The forms of the
Koman constitution have nearly always some analogy in the
Greek states ; and this is often the case in the civil law also, but in
the agrarian law the Eomans are quite peculiar. A Greek
state conquered a country and founded colonies in it, but the
possessio agri publici was not known among them, and there is
only a single instance in which something similar occurs.
From Xenophon's Anabasis we see that he consecrated an
estate at Scillus to the Ephesian Artemis; the temple did not
let this estate to farm, but received a tithe of its produce; and
this tithe was farmed. It was not the whole produce of such
an estate, but only a portion of it, that was given as an offer-
ing to the deity, just as a victim was never offered as a
oXoKavcrrov, but only a part of it was burnt in honour of the
divinity. According to the Roman law, the state did not take
from that which was publicum the highest possible amount of
produce, but made known that every Romanus Quiris, who
wished to cultivate a part of the conquered territory, might
take it : this was the occnpatio agri publici ; the right belonged
at first to the patricians only as the most ancient citizens, who
mio-ht occupy a piece of land wherever they pleased. Such
land was for the most part on the hostile frontier and in a
state of devastation in consequence of war, whence the com-
petition for it was not very great. There is no doubt that
from the first the occupant was under the obligation of paying the
decuma and quinta. It has always been overlooked that it was
this rent which was let to farm by the government.
The expressions agrum locare and ogrum vendere are synony-
mous, and have the same meaning as frvctus agri vendere and
agrum fruendum locare. A person in the possession of such
an estate might in fact look upon it as his property as
far as any third party was concerned, just like a leaseholder,
from whom the owner may take the estate on certain conditions,
but who is perfectly protected against any other party. This
protection was afforded among the Romans by the possessoriul
interdicts, so that the possession became heritable also. The
state, on the other hand, might step in at any time and say,
" I want to establish a colony here or distribute the land viritim,
and the occupant must make room;'' to such a declaration by
156 NATURE OF THE I'OSSESSIO.
the state the occupant could make no opposition. It is, there-
fore, clear that the state could always dispose of the ager publicus
and declare for example, that no more than a certain number
of jvcjera should be in the hands of an individual, because
others would thereby be excluded, and because the excessive
influence of one person through the immense nunjber of his
clients, might become dangerous to the state.
This is the great difference between property and mere
possessio. The possessio was given by the praetor through the
edict by which a person was called upon to take it; and the
praetorian jus haercditatis in its origin refers to this possessio
alone : the praetor gave possessionem bonorum secundum tabulas.
A person might by his will bequeath his property to whomso-
ever he pleased; but the possessio could be transferred to another
only by sale in the presence of witnesses and by a fair contract;
he who received it, proved his legal acceptance, and protected
himself in his possession by the possessorial interdict; he had
also witnesses that he had acquired the possession, neque vi
neque clam neque precario. But Avhat was to be done when the
possessor died? By his will he might disinherit his children
altogether, and leave his property to the most unworthy indi-
vidual, without the praetor in early times having power to
interfere; but in the case of possessio, of which he was the
exclusive source, the praetor could interfere and give his
decision according to a principle quite different from that
applied to property, just as the Lord Chancellor of England
decides according to equity. Even those who, like Livy and
Dionysius, entertain an unfair opinion of the plebes and the
tribunes, cannot deny that the patricians were usurpers of the
public land; and yet, according to the letter of the law, they
might claim it, and hence it may readily be conceived that
they appeared to be perfectly just and honest men. It is an
important advantage gained by the study of history, that .we
learn to judge fairly of men, and arrive at the conviction that
honest men may belong to the most opposite parties, their
worth being altogether irrespective of their party colours.
This may be applied to the patricians; and when Livy and
Dionysius, though both are anti-plebeian, say that the ager
publicus was occu[)icd per injnrium and viro tmv dvai^SeaTiiTcov
TraTpiKioov, they are unjust in tiieir expressions, as will be
seen, if we go back to the original state of things.
MODE or DIVIDING THE LAND. 157
According to the oldest law, none but the original Ptonian
citizens of the three ancient tribes, that is the patricians could
be admitted to the possessio ; they received from the praetor as
much land without any fixed limits as they thought they could
cultivate; they paid nothing for it, and had only to employ
their capital to render the land productive. But by the side
of the populus, there now arose the plebs who constituted the
real strength of Rome, formed the whole of the infantry, shed
their blood in the wars, and made the conquests; the plebs,
therefore, had an indisputable right to have their share in the
conquests, which however the patricians continued to regard as
their own exclusive property. There are distinct indications
that even Servius TuUius had determined that no unlimited
distributions should be made, but that one portion of the
conquered territory should remain in the hands of the state,
and the other be distributed among the plebeians as their real
property. Squares were formed according to the rules of the
science of the augurs, the lots were numbered and given to
those who were to have shares; each lot consisted of a square
{centuria). This is the origin of the division and assignment
of land {assif/natio), and of the law of Servius Tullius which
was inseparably connected with the constitution of the plebes.
Sallust's expressions would lead us to conjecture that after the
banishment of the kings, the Servian regulation was renewed.
But the patricians again deprived the plebeians of this advantage,
and it was only the a(/er regius that was distributed; afterwards
all conquered lands remained in the hands of the patricians,
who even exempted themselves from paying the tithe. The
tribunes were anything but mutineers, and being the natural
representatives of their order, they only wished to enforce its
rights. It is not impossible that the loss of a third of the
Roman territory in the Etruscan war fell particularly hard upon
the plebeians.
Sp. Cassius was the first who proposed an agrarian law, first
to the senate, then to the curies, and at last to the centuries;
or perhaps, first to the centuries and afterwards to the curies.
This proposal was to re-enact the Servian law, to restore the
decuma and quinta, to sell a portion of the conquered land, and
to ineasure out and distribute the rest among the plebes. This
is all we know about the Cassian law; the rest of Dionysius'
statement shews, as, aller mature deliberation, I can confidently
158 SP.CASSIUS EXECUTED.
assert, the distinct marks of a writer of the second half of the
seventh century, and is compiled with great ignorance of the
ancient times. The senatusconsultum of which he speaks is
utterly without foundation. The law respecting the distribu-
tion of land is so closely connected with the whole fate of the
plebeians, that it was probably talked of even in the negoci-
ations for the peace on the Sacred Mount; but under Cassius
it became a reality. There is every appearance that it was
passed, for down to the time of the decemvirs the agrarian law
is mentioned as a right possessed by the plebes, though they
were not allowed the enjoyment of it. Cassius thus appears
as a very remarkable man ; Cicero mentions him as a well-
known person, and yet he is little spoken of.
It is an historical fact, that in the following year, Sp. Cassius
was executed for high treason, and that out of his property
(ea; Cassiana familia) an offering was dedicated in the temple
of Tellus in the Carinae. It seems probable that his execution
by his own father was an invention made to soften down the
glaring injustice of the deed. Even Dionysius is justly struck
by the fact that Cassius who had then been thrice consul,
should have been put to death by his father ; the leges annales,
it is true, did not exist at that time, but it is nevertheless in-
credible that a man who had been thrice consul, and had cele-
brated a triumph should still have been in his father's power.
Another tradition followed by Dionysius and Cicero some-
what softens the account: the father of Sp. Cassius, it is said,
declared in court that he considered his son guilty, and the
latter was accordingly executed. The truth is that the quaes-
tores parricidii summoned Cassius before the curies, and that
the curies as his peers sentenced him to death. I'hus the
matter becomes intelligible : he had most deeply wounded the
members of his own order who were delighted to take ven-
geance on him. Dionysius is puzzled by tlie account; but
Livy avoids the diflicidty by representing Cassius as having
been condemned by the plebes, because the tribunes were
envious of him, — as if at that time the tribunes had had the
power to make such proposals ! The question as to whether he
was guilty or not was discussed by the ancients themselves :
Dionysius considered him guilty, Dion Cassius thought him
innocent, but God alone can know tlic truth. What he did
was an act of the purest justice, but the same action may pro-
THE FABII. 159
ceed from the best as well as from the worst motives, and it is
just as possible that he may have wished to promote the good
of the state, as that he may have aimed at the kingly dignity.
To suppose that he entertained such a thought was by no
means so absurd twenty-five years after the banishment of the
kings, as it was seventy years later in the case of Sp.j\laelius.
Cassius was a very important man, otherwise he would not
have been thrice consul, which for those times was something
unheard of: with the exception of P. Valerius Poplicola no one
had been so often invested with the consulship, and even in
his case the Fasti are very uncertain. The manner in which
Cassius concluded his treaties affords proof of a great soul ; it
is, thei'efore, very possible that he had the purest intentions of
wisdom and justice; for considering the spreading of the Vol-
scians, the situation of Rome was far from being without
danger; and it was necessary to keep all its strength together.
A great man imquestionably he was, whether he was guilty or
not guilty, and the faction which condemned him was detest-
able. Dionysius has the strange statement that Cassius had
children and that their execution also was talked of, but that
they were spared, and that thenceforward the same mercy was
shewn to the children of all criminals. This looks as if it were
taken from the law books and resembles a new legal statute,
but it may have been something quite different: we shall
afterwards meet with a son of Sp. Cassius, and that in a place
where we should least expect it. It is probable that the judge
L. Cassius Longinus, a.u. 640, whose severity was almost
cruelty, as well as the murderer of Julius Caesar, was descen
ded from his gens: no wonder that this family attached itself
to the plebes. The condemnation of Sp. Cassius by a Fabius,
laid the foundation of the greatness of the Fabian family, a
greatness to which there is no parallel in the Roman Fasti: for
seven successive years (a.u. 269-275) one of the consuls was
always a Fabius, just as a Valerius had been for five years at
the beginning of the republic. The conclusion, therefore,
naturally is that the Fabii were then in possession of supre-
macy, and that the tribe of the Tities was represented by
theni.
160 ELECTION OF CONSULS.
LECTURE XIX.
One of the disadvantages of a free government is the extra-
ordinary difficulty of correcting any mistake that has heen
committed ; the efforts of the government to make amends are
rarely acknowledged by the people. An absolute prince may
do so without weakening his authority or inciirring any
danger ; but in a republic the case is different : if the people
were good-natured and conscientious enough to offer the hand
of reconciliation, things might go on well, but it is not so;
when a government wishes to make amends to those whom it
has offended, the first step the latter take is revenge. This
consideration, especially if Sp. Cassius did fall a quite innocent
victim, must serve to excuse the Roman rulers for committing
a fresh act of violence after his death, and altering the consti-
tution to their own advantage; for the government could not
stop where it was, and least of all if it was conscious of a
crime; for if they had allowed the constitution to remain un-
changed, it was reasonable to expect that in the free election of
the consuls by the centuries the plebeians would elect from
among the patricians none but men like Sp. Cassius. They
were obliged to do what Dionysius expresses so strangely in
saying that the plebes withdrew from the elections, and that
the noblest alone took part in them ; as if by the Servian con-
stitution, any one except the nobles could ever have decided a
question! The real state of the case is quite different; and I
shall relate it as it actually occurred, reserving my proofs for
another place.
In the year after the death of Cassius, or even in the very
same year, when consuls were to be elected, the election was
not made by the centuries, but the senate nominated the can-
didates, and the curies confirmed them But this jrave rise to
the bitterest disputes between the plebes who were led by the
tribunes, and the consuls; for although the tribunes at that
time still required the sanction of the curies, yet the injustice
was so great, that not even the mildest coidd have borne it.
Hence the character of the tribuneships now became suddenly
changed : up to this time there is no trace of tribunitian com-
motions. But now the honor of their order was too much
DISSATISFACTION OF THE PI.EBEIANS. 161
insulted, for on the one hand the agrarian law was not carried
into effect ; and on the other, the government was in the hands
of consuls who had been illegally elected. Accordingly the
tribune Ti. Pontificius refused to allow a levy to be made, be-
cause the people were not bound to serve under an illegal
government: the ancient annals would hardly have preserved
his name if his opposition had not been the first that ever pro-
ceeded from a tribune. But an army was levied by force, the
consuls either openly defying the tribunes and ordering the
men who refused to answer to be seized and chastised, or caus-
ing the houses of those who lived in the country to be set on
fire and their cattle to be taken away, or lastly transferring the
place where the levy was to be made from the city to the
country, whither the tribunician power did not extend. When
in this manner an army had been raised, the despair of the
plebeians went so far that they would rather allow themselves
to be butchered by the enemy, than fight for their tyrants. This
exasperation continued for two years, and in the end rose to
such a pitch, that the senate, as though it were a concession,
consented that one of the consuls, should, perhaps without a
senatusconsultum, be elected by the centuries. The consequence
was that the consul elected by the centuries met with no oppo-
sition on the part of the plebeians, while they resisted the other
in every possible way. However, the times were so bad, and
the surroundino- nations acted with such boldness towards
Eome, that the tribunes themselves saw, that it would be better
to put up with injustice than to allow the republic to perish.
The plebes accordingly in the following year, A.u. 272, con-
ceded to the senate and cuincs the election of one consul. But
at the same time they must have acquired the right to elect
their tribunes Avithout the sanction of the curies. Publilius
could never have become tribune, if this change had not been
made previously to his law. According to our traditions the
number of tribunes must have been five, as early as that
time.
During this period, the Volscian'wars continued uninterrupt-
edly, though they may not have been very important, so that
the Latins and Hernicans alone were able to hold out against
them. But one war weighed heavily upon Rome alone, — that
against Veii. Veientine wars are mentioned under the kings,
even from the time of Romulus, but they are quite apocryphal.
VOL. I. M
162 WAR WITH VEIL
According to tlio most recent investigations, the town of Veii
Avas about five miles in circumference, and was tluis as large
as Rome in the time of Servius Tullius. It is very remarkable,
that two siich large towns should have been situated so near
each other, for the distance is not more than from twelve to
fifteen miles; the fact shows, however, how strong was the
contrast between the Etruscans and Latins in those times.
Livy and Dionysius are very minute in relating the events of
the war; and Livy believing all to be true, is very pleasing in
his narrative. It may be regarded as authentic, that there was
a long and difficult war against Veii. The detail in Livy
contains nothing that is improbable; the account of the man-
ner in which Cn. Manlius fell, and of the useless attempt to
deceive fate especially, have an antique air. If we compare
the accounts of this battle with those of the battle of lake
Regillus, we shall find a considerable difference. The many
stories about it were probably derived from the laudationes of
the Fabian gens, which were continually repeated like the
panegyric \6yoL iTnrdcjiioL of the Greeks. I believe that the
plebeians always refused obedience to the consul elected by the
patricians; the Fabii on this occasion also doubted whether
the plebeians would obey their commands; but as the latter
were enthusiastic in the struggle, their co-operation decided
the issue of the battle, and the Fabii became reconciled to
them. Through this reconciliation, everything assumed a dif-
ferent aspect. One of the heads of the Fabii, who are called
three brothers, but were probably gentiles, had fallen; two
others saw that the oligarchs were throwing the republic into
a desperate position. The Veientines were defeated, but the
war continued ; and although the Latins and Hernicans were in
arms, yet the Volscians spread farther and farther, and concord
was the thing most needful. The Fabii themselves accord-
ingly declared that the agrarian law must be conceded
to the plebeians; and the consequence was, that none of the
Fabii was elected patrician consul, whereas the plebeians
chose their former friend, Kaeso Fabius for their consul.
A most formidable commotion now arose, and the Fabii
were looked upon by their own order as traitors; their propo-
sals being rejected, they quitted the city in a body 306 in
nimiber and formed a settlement on the Cremcra, being
joined by their whole gens and some thousands of pie-
SECESSION OF THE FABIT. 163
beiaus. This must have been a settlement of a peculiar kind,
for it was not a colony, having been formed per secessionem .-
it was a political emigration, because the Fabii had fallen
out with their own order; and they founded a home for
themselves independent of Rome.^ It is said that only one of
the Fabii survived, having been left behind at Rome as a child
and in a state of ill health. Perizonius has sifted this account
with great critical sagacity, and has shown how absurd it is to
suppose that of 306 men in the prime of life all should have
been without children, except one. The only surviving child
moreover, appears a few years later as consul. The fact
probably is, that the number 306, which is certainly symbolical,
is not that of the warriors or even generals, as Livy says, but
comprises the whole of the Fabian gens existing in the settle-
ment, including women and children. If we were to suppose
that they were 306 men capable of bearing arms, we should
be obliged to estimate the number of all the patricians at an
amount beyond all possibility. There can be no doubt that
they had a large number of clients ; and the fact of the latter's
emigrating with them is a remarkable instance of the relation-
ship existing between patrons and clients. ^
The destruction of the Fabii on the Cremera is an historical
fact, but the account of it is partly poetical, partly annalistic.
The poetical story was, that the Fabii, trusting to the peace
concluded with the Etruscans, went from the Cremera to Rome
for the purpose of offering up a sacrum gentilicium in the city,
— such a sacrifice indeed could be offered only at Rome, and
' It was probably an attempt to conquer the Veientines by the establishment
of a fortified place in their territory, like the 67riTeix"''j"oy of Decclea against
Athens, for in those times a campaign lasted only a very short period, from a
week to a fortnight; the garrison of a place either went out to meet the enemy, or
shut themselves up within their own walls; and in order to present the inhabit-
ants quietly returning to then' fields after the departure of the enemy, the latter
often founded a fortified place in the territory which they had invaded. — N.
^ Li^y says of the Fabii that they went out infelici via porta Camientali ;
and Ovid, Carmentis portae dextro via proximo Jano est : Ire per hanc noli,
quisqiies es : omen habet. This must be understood thus: all Roman gates had
a double arch, through one of which people went out of, and tlu-ough the other
into, the city; the former was called Janus dexter, and the latter Janus sinister.
The Cannental gate was situated between the Capitoline and Quirinal. Now
as any one who wanted to go out was not allowed to pass through the left
Janus, he was obliged to take a round-abt)Ut way, if the place he wanted to go
to was close to the Cannental gate: for the right Janus wa.s ominous, as behig
that through which the Fabii had left the city.— N.
M 2
164 DESTRUCTION OF THE FABII.
nil the members of the gens were obliged to attend — and not
suspecting that the Etruscans had any hostile intentions, they
proceeded without arms. But the Veientines roused their
kinsmen and occupied the road Avhich the Fabii had to pass;
tlie latter were surrounded by many thousands, who however
did not venture to attack them in close combat, but killed
them from a distance with slings and arrows. The sacrum
gcntihcium was undoubtedly the statum sacrificium of the Fabian
gens on the Quirinal which is mentioned in the Gallic
calamity.^
The other account is, that the Fabii, being drawn away
farther and farther by flocks feeding in the neighbourhood,
and after at length coming into a woody plain, were slain by
a numerous Etruscan army. The clients are not again men-
tioned, but the fortress on the Cremera was taken bv the
Veientines. We might be tempted to suspect treachery here,
and that tlie rulers of Rome perfidiously delivered the fortress
up to the enemy: one of the Roman consuls, T. Menenius, is
said to have been in the neighbourhood, and to have after-
wards beeii criminally accused; but that suspicion seems hardly
probable, and if the consul acted treacherously, it can have
been only from personal hatred. The same consul was defeated
and fled to Rome, and the fugitives threw themselves into the
city, and did not even maintain the Janiculum, the garrison
of which fled with them; the other consul appeared just in
time to ward off the greatest danger, and it was with difliculty
that the I'ridge was broken down. It is true there was a
wall also running from the Capitol to the Aventine, which
protected the city on this side of the river; but ihe breaking
down of the bridge was necessary in order to Isolate the
suburb, which no doubt existed as early as that time. The
Veientines were now masters of the whole plain ; they pitched
their camp on the Janiculum, crossed the river, and plundered
all the Roman territory on the left bank of the Tiber. It was
then about the middle of summer, and the new consuls entered
upon their office on the first of August. The enemy had
crossed the river unexpectedly on rafts, and thus it may have
happened that the greater part of the harvest was destroyed,
the farms burnt down, and that men and cattle fell Into the
hands of the enemy: the distress in the city rose to an extra-
'■' Livv. V. 40.
THE ETRUSCANS DEFEATED. 165
ordinary height The Roman armies were encamped outside
the city, and hard pressed by the Veienlines. But despair
gave them courage, and they resolved upon a daring enterprise,
which Avas to decide whether Eome should perish or be saved.
They crossed the river, defeated the Etniscans, and while one
part stormed the Jauiculum, another made an attack from
above; they lost indeed an immense number of men, but they
drove off the enemy. I have already observed, that this ac-
count presents a striking resemblance to that of the war
with Porsena. One year later a truce was concluded with
the Veieutines for forty years of ten months each, and was
honestly kept.
After tliese occurrences, the character of the tribuneship
shews itself in a peculiar manner: the tribunes summoned the
consuls of the preceding year before the people, not as our
authors represent it before the plebes, for they were yet much
too weak to sit in judgment on the sovereign magistrates, nay
not even before the centuries, which were for the most part
plebeian; but it was either not the tribunes at all but the
quaestors that summoned the consuls, or what is much more
probable, a great change had taken place by which the tribunes
were enabled to give effect to their right of accusing the
consuls before their own peers, that is, the popidus, because the
magistrates who were bound to do so neglected their duty.
After the consuls were condemned to pay a considerable fine,
the tribunes proceeded to bring an accusation against their
successors. They were acquitted, but the exasperation rose
hii^her and hia-her. The tribunes had l^rouo-ht their accusation
before the burghers, and the case was one on which they had
the power to decide, for it was nwjestas populi Romaniimminuta
re male gesta, and consequently a a-imen majestatis : but the
tribunes now jn'oceeded further. They summoned all the
consuls that had been in office since the time of Sp. C'assius,
before the plebeian commonalty, because they had not done
justice to the people in regard to the agrarian law; and this
step was taken according to an old Italian maxim, that when
two nations were united by a treaty any complaint respecting
a violation of the treaty should be brought before the injured
people. It is repugnant to our views that a person should be
the judge in his own case, but the practice existed among all
the ancient Italian nations, so that the Romans even followed
166 MURDER OF THE TRIBUNE GENUCIUS.
the principle of delivering up Roman citizens to an allied
nation which had been offended by them ; as examples, I may
mention the surrender of IMancinus to the Numantines, of
Postumius and his companions to the Samnites after the
Caudine defeat, and of Fabius, who had offended the
ambassadors of Apollonia. The surrender of those qui in noxa
sunt was a general demand whenever there occurred a rerum
repetitio. This principle is not found among the Greeks; it
is based partly upon the noble idea that an oath before the
actual trial is sufficiently binding, and partly upon a notion
which is also found among the ancient Germans: with them
any member of a family was obliged to come forward as a
witness in a case affecting members of his own family, when
he was called upon to do so (consacrainentales) ; a custom
which rested upon the noble idea of fidelity. It was a principle
that no one could judge a member of his own order but only
defend him; from which however frightful abuses arose. It
is surprising how impartial courts of justice at Rome sometimes
were; to be so, however, was less difficult on account of the
circumstance, that the accused, up to the moment when the
verdict was given, was at liberty to retire from Rome and
betake himself to some one of the many allied towns. At
Caere, for example, a Roman might demand to be received as
a citizen. The origin of this right of withdrawing and claim-
ing the right of citizenship elsewhere was ti*aced in Roman
books to the times of T. Tatius, who refused to deliver up his
kinsmen to the inhabitants of Lavinium who had been injured
by them : in consequence of this he was murdered, but after-
wards tlic Romans surrendered the offenders to the Lavinians,
and tlie latter the murderers of T. Tatius, that they might be
tried.
It was upon this principle that the tribune Cn. Genucius, who
belonged to a family which even at that time was great, sum-
moned the patrician magistrates before the commonalty. He
had promulgated his accusation against the consuls of the pre-
ceding year in trinundinum, and the plebeians themselves were
to judge; their right to do so was by no means doubtful, ac-
cording to the treaty solemnly sworn to upon the Sacred
INIount; nor was the issue of the trial uncertain. But in the
exasperation of parties, the patricians resolved upon the quickest
expedient — they committed the monstrous crime of murdering
Genucius; and witli \\\\^ murder the accusation dropped.
ARREST OF VOLEUO PUBLILIUS. 167
LECTUKE XX.
DiONYSiUS justly observes that if tlie assassins of Genucius
had been satisfied with their crime, the terror which they
created might have been sufficient for their purpose. The
tribunes were in the greatest alarm, for their sacred right was
violated; as it was necessary for their houses to be open day
and night, no precaution could protect them against a similar
outrage, nor against the intrusion of disguised assassins; and
even the boldest dreads such a danger. The murderers of
Genucius were not discovered, and the general terror para-
lyzed everybody. The patricians exulted in their deed, and
wanted to avail themselves of the first moment for making a
levy, and for adding scorn and insult to their crime: their
intention was to select the noblest of the plebeians, and in the
field to put them to death or abandon them to the enemy.
But they were too hasty in their insolence, and their exultation
knew no patience : they summoned a distinguished plebeian,
Volero PubliHus, who had before been centurion, and wanted
to enlist him as a common soldier. Distinguished and wealthy
families existed among the plebeians as well as among the
patricians ; and to these the Publilii belonged. Wlien Publilius
refused to obey, the consuls sent their lictors to drag him
obtorto C0//0 before their tribunal, to strip him, and scourge him
servili modo. The Roman toga was a very wide garment of
one piece in the form of a semicircle ; there was no seam in it,
and a man might wrap himself entirely up in it : now if a
person was to be led before a magistrate, the lictors threw
the toga round his head and thus dragged him away, whereby
they often nearly strangled him, the blood flowing from his
mouth and nose. A person dragged in this manner endea-
voured of course to defend himself by drawing the toga towards
himself; the lictor then took a knife and cut a hole in the toga
through which he put his hand and so forced his prisoner
along. This is expressed by the phrase vestein scindere. But
the lictors rarely made use of such violence, because the j^eople
did not easily tolerate it. Volero Publilius being resolute and
strong, dashed away the lictor, ran among the plebeians and
called upon the tribunes for assistance. The latter, however,
168 THE PUBLILIAN ROGATIONS.
being themselves thoroughly terrified, remained silent, where-
upon he addressed himself to the plebeians : the people rushed
in a body upon the pursuing lictors who were easily over-
powered. The young patricians ran to the spot, and a strug-
gle ensued, in which the tyrants were driven from the forum
in a very short time. On the following day, the consuls again
attempted a levy, but were equally unsuccessfiil, and they
then abstained from making any further trial in the course of
that year. The murder of Genucius had only rendered matters
far worse, and Volero Publilius was elected tribune for the
year following, a clear proof that the sanction of the curies was
no longer requisite.
An ordinary man Avould have summoned the consuls of the
preceding year before the court of the plebes; but this would
only have been a miserable piece of revenge. Publilius saw
that the great exaspeiation of the commonalty must be made
use of to gain permanent advantages for them; and for this
reason, contrary to the expectation of all, he took a step which
properly speaking he Avas not allowed to take, but it was the
beginning of a new order of things. He called upon the
plebes to declare that they had a right to discuss the affairs
of the state on the proposal of a tribune, and to pass valid reso-
lutions; and further that the tribunes should no longer be
elected by the centuries, but by the tribes. These rogations,
which are much clearer in Dionysius and Dion Cassius (in the
abridgment of Zonaras) than in Livy, do not allude to one
circumstance, viz., that such resolutions of the tribes required
the sanction of the senate and curies in order to become law;
it is impossible that the Publilian law should have gone so far
as to make the same claims as the Hortensian, as is clear also
from the cases which occur. The development of the states of
antiquity shows no svich abrupt transitions any more than
nature herself; and the demands made by the Hortensian law
would have been inconsistent and senseless in those times.
The manner in which business was now done was the fol-
lowing: — The tribunes made their legislative proposals on a
market day ; for the people, the populus as well as the plebes,
could not transact biisiness on all days, the curies and centuries
only on dies comiiialcs, and the tribes only on the nundines ; it
was the Hortensian law that first empowered the centuries also
to assemble on the nimdines. The accurate expressions are
PliOCEEUIKGS IN THE ASSEMBLIES. 169
popnlusjubet.plebs scisit ; it was never said plehs jubet ov popu-
liscituin. The plebes at first met in the forum, but afterwards
in tlie area Capitolina, the pupulus in the comitium or in a grove
outside the pomoerium, called the aesculetum or lucus Petelinus.
In the concilium plebis the votes were given by means o^tabellae,
and in the concilium of the curies, viva voce. There is no trace
of its having been necessary to announce by a previous
promulgation the subject of discussion in the concilium
populi. The senate had no power to bring anything directly
before the plebes; it could only commission the consvds to
have a conference with the tribunes on any question;
the curies on the other hand could not transact any busi-
ness without a senafusconsultum, and in their assemblies nothing
could be done without a curule magistrate or an interrex,
who were not even allowed to show their faces at the meetings
of the plebs.^ Now when the tribunes wanted to bring a bill
before the commonalty for deliberation, they exhibited it in
the foriun in albo in trinundinum, that is as a matter to be de-
termined upon after fifteen days, the first nundines being
included in the reckoning. A concio advocata might take
place at any time, for the forum was always crowded, and the
tribune might ascend the rostra and address the people, or give
an opportunity of speaking to others, especially those who
intended to speak against his proposal {edocere plebem). But
such deliberations were only preliminary, not decisive; just as
when the British parliament forms itself into a committee, in
which mere resolutions are passed, or as when the French
chambers have a preliminary deliberation upon a legislative
proposal in the bureaux; the deliberation on the day when a
question was to be put to the vote was quite different. It was
necessary that every transaction of the popidics as well as of the
plebs should be completed before sunset, otherwise the day
' In our manuals of antiquities these distinctions are neglected. However
valuable the cai'lier works on this subject arc in reference to detail, tliey give us
no assistance in comprehending the political state of Rome. The works of Si-
gonius and Beaufort deseiwe to be recommended as containing ample materials
an-anged by ingenious men ; in regard to later times we cannot be grateful
enongh to them, for the vast amount of information Mhich they afibrd. Tlic
commentary of Manutius on Cicero's letters is (juite indispensable for any one
who wishes to understand that period, and his M'ork De Dicbtis is excellent,
btit as to the earlier times, he too is in tlic dark even more than others. Tlie
work of Adam is in many respects invaluable, but the first part contains a great
deal which is incoiTcct. — N.
170 PROCEEDINGS IN THE ASSEMBLIES.
was lost; the plcbs had their auspices only in later times, but
a flash of lightning or any similar phenomenon separated the
populus (dies diffissus). When a tribune had promulgated his
rogation in alho fifteen days previously, the decisive deliberation
took place. We are too apt to represent to ourselves these
proceedings as tumultuous; the people assembled early in the
morning, the deliberation lasted the whole day, and one person
rose after another speaking either for or against the proposal :
the opposition endeavoured eximere diem, in order that it
might be impossible to come to a conclusion before sunset:
which was observed from the steps of the curia Hostilia", and
then suprema tempestas was announced. In such cases, the
tribune was again obliged to wait eight days and again to
promulgate in trinum nundinum. This form must have been
customary even in the earliest times in all the deliberations of
the plebes, for there had been plebiscita^ as long as the plebes
existed.
If, on the other hand, the discussion was closed and the
votes were to be taken, the tribune called upon the patricians
and clients to withdraw, and as the rostra stood between the
comitium and the forum, the populus withdrew to the former.
Hereupon the forum was divided by ropes into a number of
squares, into each of which a tribe entered, and each tribe then
voted for itself under the management of its tribune. Wlaen
it became known that the tribes had passed the resolution, the
patricians had the right of rejecting it, just as in England the
house of Lords and the king may reject a bill sent up by the
house of Commons ; but if the latter is determined to have the
bill passed, it would be quite impossible to reject it; such a
measure would be the signal for a dissolution of the govern-
ment. The patricians would not allow matters to come to such
a crisis, and therefore usually endeavoured to prevent the
plebes from coming to an obnoxious resolution. We might
ask, what advantage there was in preventing a resolution one
day, since it might be carried the next? A great deal was
gained; a respite of three weeks, in which perhaps a war
might arise, which would put a stop to every thing; nay a
* The discovery of this place has hecn tho key to all my investigations on
Roman topograjihy. — N.
' The orthography pkhisscita is quite wrong; plcbi is the ancient genitive of
plebes ]nst as Hercules, IJeicuU; Cacles, Cacli; dies, dii. — N.
TUE PUBLILIAN LAWS. 171
matter might be dragged on through a whole year, but then
the evil only increased and the exasperation of the people rose
higher and higher. This is the folly which all oligarchs will
be continually guilty of in some form or other as long as there
are oligarchies. The patricians were blind enough not to see
that if they could get up among the plebeians themselves a
sufficiently strong party to oppose a proposal, the consequences
would be the same as if a resolution were actually passed and
afterwards rejected, but without any odium being attached to
them. In the end the patricians never shewed sufficient cou-
rage to let matters come to a crisis : they always yielded but in
a hateful manner, and reserved to themselves their ancient
rights, no part of which they would give up except on
compulsion.
LECTURE XXI.
The great importance of the Publilian law is that the tribunes
now obtained the initiative; until then it had been quite in
the power of the senate and the patricians either to allow a
legislative proposal to be discussed or to prevent it : the consul
first made his proposal to the senate, and it was only after the
latter had given its consent to the proposal, that it was brought
before the curies or the curies and centuries. But as the tri-
bunes were now at liberty to lay any proposal before the
commonalty, they thereby acquired the power of introducing
a discussion upon any subject which required it. There were
points which urgently demanded a change, and among them
many of the highest importance, which without the Publilian
rogation would never have been discussed in a constitutional
way. The Publilian laws therefore were beneficial, for had
they not been passed, the indignation of the plebeians would
have vented itself in another way, and the state would have
been torn to pieces in wild exasperation; I cannot, however,
blame the rulers of that time for not seeing the beneficial
results of the laws. But the angry manner in which they
opposed the tribunes was as blamcable as it was injurious; the
mode of their opposition threw the formal injustice upon the
172 THE PATRICIANS EXPELLED FK03I THE FORUM.
opposite side, for I cannot deny that tlie Publllian law was
contrary to tlie existint^ order of things, and an irregularity.
The senate might have disregarded such a jjlebiscitum altogether,
or might have declared that the plebes were not qualified to
pass it; but when the tribunes called upon the populus to with-
draw from the forum, the patricians refused to go, and with
their clients spread all over it, so that the plebeians were pre-
vented from voting ; they drove away the servants who carried
ihe voting urns, threw out the tablets containing the votes,
and the like. After this had been attempted once or twice
more, the exasperation of the plebeians rose to. the highest
pitch and a fight ensued, in wdiich the patricians and their
consul Appius Claudius were driven from the forum. The
consequence was a general panic among the patricians, because
they saw that it was impossible to resist the infuriated multi-
tude. But the plebeians did not stop here: they put them-
selves in possession of the Capitol but without abusing this
victory, though the tribunes are generally censured. I do not
mean to represent the plebeians as champions of virtue or their
opponents as thorough knaves: such an opinion would be ridi-
culous, but the conduct of the plebeians contains a great lesson ;
those who in such times have the power in their hands, often
abuse it, whereas the oppressed are moderate in their conduct,
as we see especially in the case of religious parties. I believe
the Jansenists at Utrecht would not have the excellent repu-
tation which they fully deserve, if they were not the oppressed
church : it is often a salutary thing for a man to belong to the
persecuted party. The plebeians used their victory only to
carry their resolution. Although Appius even now exerted
all his influence to induce the senate to refuse its sanction, yet
the senators were too much impressed with the greatness of the
danger, and the law Avas sanctioned. Livy refers this law
merely to the election of the tribvmes, but Dionysius and Dion
Cassius (in Zonaras) give the correct account, f-ivy did not
clearly sec the peculiar importance of these laws, but at the
close of his narrative he mentions some poiiits which presup-
pose what he has not stated.
Had the patricians been wise, they ought to have been
pleased at the issue of the affair; no one at least could regard
it as a misfortune. The repeal of such a law is impossible, but
instead of .seeing this, the patricians with tlicir weakened
APPIUS CLAUDIUS. 173
powers continued attempting to undo what had been done, and
were bent upon taking revenge. The plebeians still looked
upon the consul whom they had not elected as illegal, and
refused to obey him ; in this predicament was Appius Claudius,
who led an army against the Volscians, and on his march
began to punish and torture the soldiers for the most trilling
transgressions. Dionysius' account of these things is very
credible, and seems to be founded upon ancient traditions. The
plebeians opposed the consul with stubborn defiance, and would
rather be punished than obey him. Immediately before the
battle, they determined to take to flight, and accordingly ran
back to tlie camp, although the Volscians were not on that
account the less bent upon pursuing and cutting them to pieces ;
the Romans did not even remain in the camp, but continued
their flight till they reached the Koman territory. There Appius
did a thino- which might seem to us incredible, were it not ac-
counted for by the influence of the allies^ the Hernicans and
Latins who were under his command: he put to death every
tenth man of the army, and led the survivors to Eome. The
consequence was, that in the following year he was accused by
the tribunes before the plebes; we may look upon Livy's mas-
terly description of this as based upon the account of one who
had a thorough knowledge of the events, though it is more
detailed than he found it in the annals. Appius displayed the
greatest defiance and haughtiness, and was resolved not to be
softened down by entreaties ; even the tribunes allowed them-
selves to be overawed by hitn. Both our historians agree in
stating that a respite was granted to him by the tribunes, in
order that he might make away with himself, — a fact which
often occurs in the history of Rome, and more rarely in that
of Greece. He availed himself of the concession even before
the dawn of the ensuing day, and escaped further prosecution
by suicide.
After this, the internal disputes ceased for a time, while the
wars with foreign nations became more and more important.
In the year A.U. 286, the Romans conquered Antium, or, ac-
cording to a more probable account, Antium opened its gates
to them. In our historians, the town appears as decidedly
Volscian, and part of its inhabitants are said to have fled to
the Volscians at Ecetra. I believe that the following is a cor-
rect view of the matter. AntiiUTi, like Agylla and the other
174 FALL OF ANTIUM.
coast towns, was originally Tyrrhenian, but there may have
been a numerous party in the town which, feeling itself too
weak to resist Kome and Latium, called in the assistance of
the Volscians; and Ecetra, the south-eastern capital of this
people, sent a colony to Antium. This colony was looked
upon by a part of the citizens with hostile feelings, and when
these citizens called upon the Romans for assistance, the
Volscian colonists were expelled, and returned to Ecetra. The
Volscians then attempted to recover what they had thus lost,
and this save rise to obstinate wars. After Antium had thrown
itself into the arms of the Romans and their allies, it received
a colony of Romans, Latins and Hernicans, a remarkable proof
of the equal manner in which these three nations shared their
conquests. Every one must see how Dionysius has distorted
this event; Livy thinks that the Romans who were willing to
join the colony, did not amount to a sufficient number. Antium
now was akin to the three allied states, and the ancient Tyr-
rhenian Antiatans formed the commonalty of the town, while
the colonists were the burghers; it is probable that each state
sent 300 colonists, except the Hernicans, who sent 400, for
among them, the division into four seems to have prevailed,
whence the mention of the cohortes guadringenariae. The
Antiates rnille milites, who are met with in the later Volscian
wars, seem to be these 1000 colonists. Such numerical calcu-
lations are anything but arbitrary, however much they may
be opposed to our notions. But the success of the Romans in
this war was only transitory ; for as they were not the strongest
in the field, and as the ancient inhabitants always fared ill
under a colony, it is conceivable that ten years afterwards
Antium was lost by the Romans, in the same manner as it had
been gained. According to our division, the establishment of
the colony at Antium concludes the first period of the Volscian
war, which henceforth assumes quite a different character.
The Aequians, who at that time must have been a great
people (Cicero, in fact, calls them gens magna), seem until then
to have taken little part in the war ; but the loss of Antium
roused not only the Volscians of Ecetra to vigorous exertions,
but also the Aequians. The subsequent misfortunes of the
Romans are veiled over in our accounts; but the enemy seem
to have advanced as far as the frontiers of the Roman territory,
and all the Latin towns were conquered : the Volscians were
DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT TOWNS. 175
formerly found in the district of Velitrae, but henceforth they
appear every year on mount Algidus, and obtained possession
of the arx of Tuscuhim, which was reconquered from them
only with great difficulty. Several Latin towns disappears
entirely. Corioli was destroyed: Lavici became an Aequian
town; Gabii continued to be deserted within its walls as late
as the time of Dionysius; Praeneste is no longer mentioned,
and after a period of 100 years, when it reappears in history,
it was hostile towards Eome; it is probable that only the
nearest places, such as Tusculum and Lavinium, remained in
the hands of the Romans. The frontier of the Roman dominion
was on the other side of the hills of Tusculum ; Circeii, Velitrae,
Norba and other towns farther East were lost. It is certain,
therefore, that more than half of Latium was conquered by the
Aequians who penetrated into it from the Anio, and by the
Volscians who advanced from the sea coast.
Some allusions to these events are to be found in the account
of Coriolanus, for the Romans endeavoured to console them-
selves for these losses by ascribing them to one of their own
countrymen, a feeling which is quite natural. In the time of
the French revolution, I have often seen emigrants rejoicing
at the victories of the French, although they knew that their
lives woiild be sacrificed should they fall into the hands of the
conquerors. In like manner James the second when in exile
was delio-hted at the victories of the Encrlish. The Romans
thus fancied that the Volscians lost all their power as soon as
Coriolanus was no longer with them. But the whole story of
Coriolanus is neither more nor less than a poem, in which a
series of events belonging to various years is referred to one
man and to one period, which events moreover are placed many
years too early. However hard the Romans may have been
pressed, it cannot be conceived that neither consuls nor armies
should have been sent against the enemy, while the latter in
their victorious career hastened from town to town. It is only
in the enumeration of the places which were destroyed, that
we have had a hint as to those wliich became Volscian after
the destruction of Latium.
The Volscians penetrated so far, that it became necessary to
receive men and cattle within the walls of Rome, just as at
Athens in the Peloponnesian war; and this crowding together
of men and beasts produced a plague. It is well known that
176 PESTILENCE IN ITALY.
great depression always produces a susceptibility for epidemics.
Jt was the despair of the Attic peasantry, who in the Pelo-
ponnesian war saw their farms burnt down and their olive
plantations destroyed, that developed the germs of the epi-
demic. Physicians of Cadiz have pointed out to me a probable
cause for the breaking out of the yellow fever which raged
there in 1800: previously every thing was in a prosperous
condition, but the despondency which arose from the influx of
large numbers of poor unemployed people, increased and
spread the disease with great rapidity. In most cases, the
germs of an epidemic, though existing, do not come to an
outbreak, for .particular circumstances are rec^uiied to develop
them. Thus we may well believe the Romans, that the con-
flux of jDcople, the want of water and cleanliness (it was in the
month of August) greatly contributed to produce the epi-
demic ; but it is probable that the great pestilence which thirty
years later broke out in Greece and Carthage, began in Italy
as early as that time. The rate of mortality was fearful : it
was a real pestilence, and not a mere fever, which alone as
persons were obliged to sleep in the open air, might, at that
season of the year, have carried off thousands of people.
Both consuls fell victims to the disease, two of the four augurs,
the curio maximus, the fourth part of the senators, and an
immense number of citizens of all classes, so that sufficient
conveyances could not be found even to carry the dead to the
river; the bodies were thrown into the cloacae, whereby the
evil was increased. During this plague the Volscians and
Aequians traversed the whole of Latiuni; the Latins offered
resistance, but suffered a fearful defeat in the valley of Grotta
Ferrata. In the following year we hear nothing of victories ;
the disease may have attacked the enemy also, and thus have
saved Rome. After a few years the plague re-appeared as usual.
Much of the detail in our accounts of this war is not de-
serving of notice at all, a great part consists of later inventions
for the purpose of giving to that dismal period some pleasing
features. The scene of the wars is mount Algidus, which is
not a mountain, but a cold interrupted table land several miles
in circumference between Tusculum and Velitrae ; it forms the
watershed from which the streams flow partly towards the Liris
and the Pontine marshes, and partly towards the AnioK "^riie
' Horace says: Nigraeferacifrondix in Alffirlo. — N.
C. TERENTILIUS HARSA. 177
district is barren, and in antiquity, as is the case now, it was
coA^ered witla ever-green stone-oaks; some years ago it was
the constant haunt of robbers, in consequence of wliich I could
not visit it, but I have collected accurate information about it.
There the Aequians and Volscians always appeared and united
their armies. The same district is the scene of the poetical
story of Cinciunatus' victories over the Volscians. These
victories, at least in the form in which they have come down
to us, belong to a very beautiful poem, and are connected with
the internal history of Eome, on which account I shall defer
speaking of them, until I have related to you the commotions
which occurred after the Publilian law.
LECTURE XXII.
The Publilian law could* not remain without consequences
destructive of internal quiet, for it was the beginning of a great
commotion that could not fail to be attended with violent
shocks. The great subject of complaint with the plebeians
was the unlimited power of the consuls: they had taken the
place of the kings; their time of office was limited, but in
power they were little inferior to the kings, and the conse-
quences of their undefined power were manifested in the levies
of troops. As the tribunes had now the right to make legis-
lative proposals, C Terentilius Harsa first brought forward a
bill that five men should be appointed to draAV up a law
respecting the limits of the consular power. It was very
difficult to"execute this task, for the supreme power can never
in reality be perfectly defined, and least of all in republics ; it
must ever be something uncertain so as to be able to act on
extraordinary emergencies. This circumstance was recognised
by the Roman republic in the formula videant consides ne quid
res puhlica detrimenti capiat ; in the earlier times this was quite
common, and at such junctures it was hardly possible to de-
termine between the legal use and the abuse of power. The
task of these five men was of such a nature that we can well
imagine men of the greatest^ honesty might say much for or
VOL. I. N
178 LEX TERENTILIA.
against the proposal. Some might demand a definition of the
consular power so as to prevent abuse, while others might
insist upon the government not being disarmed, in order that
it might not become powerless in times of danger ; but there
ought to have been no venom in these differences of opinion.
It was perhaps intended from the very first that the measure
should be of a more extensive character, and it may even have
been intended to divide the consulship equally between the
two estates.
During the first year, the commotions were less violent than
in the next, for according to Dionysius, whose account is quite
correct, another tribune took up the lex Tei'entilia with this
extension, that decemvirs, five of the patres and five of the
plebeians, should be appointed to undertake a general revision
of the laws. The legislations of antiquity embraced not only
the civil and criminal law and the mode of procedure, but also
the political laws and regidations of a temporary nature. The
legislation of Solon, for example, was a complete reform of the
constitution, and at the same time regulated temporary matters,
such as the payment of debts. The notion of the period which
has just passed away, that general legislation ought to proceed
from a large assembly of lawyers was quite foreign to the
ideas of the ancients, who well knew that legislation must be
the work of a few, and the province of larger assemblies was
merely to adopt or reject it, the sanction resting with them.
This is the natural course of things, and hence the ancients
for the most part followed the maxim that legislation should
be quite independent of the magistracy: in all the republics
of antiquity, one man or a few were appointed to make the
laws, and the people said either Yes or No. Such also was
the case among the Romans: ten men were to be appointed
legihus scribendis, who however were to be invested with con-
sular power. From the remains of the Roman laws, we see
that each was of great extent, which accounts for the fact, that
but few persons read the laws, and that most people were quite
ignorant of their contents : in this respect, the republican form
in such aifairs is necessarily a mere shew. Dionysius very
happily expresses himself in saying that the Romans aimed at
laoyofjbia, and gained la-Tjjopia.^ From an accidental expres-
' " Properly (in HerodoUts and Thucydides Iffovonia is that state of freedom
wliero no man is beyond or :ilinve thelaw; it \nr\^\thQv ?i rvpawU nor ahwaar da;
ANCIENT LAWS. 179
sion of Tacitus we know that the ancient laws were, for the
most part, traced to the kings Romulus, Xuma, Tullus and
Ancus. This shews that each of the three ancient tribes and
the plebes had their separate laws, which were ascribed to their
respective archegetes. These tribes and the plebes, which had
originally been distinct communities, continued to preserve
their ancient statutes, even after their union into one state. I
believe that more than a hundred different statutes existed in
the papal dominions previovisly to the French revolution, and
many an Italian village containing not more than one hundred
houses has its own statute or customary law; the late Abbe
Morelli had collected three hundred different statutes in Italy.
The same was the case in the middle ages in many parts of
Germany, though in some instances one and the same law was
in force over a large extent of country. It is not even certain
whether the whole of the plebes had the same law, or whether
a different one was not established in places like IMedullia and
Politorium ; this hypothesis, it is true, is opposed to the state-
ment that Servius Tullius abolished all differences among the
plebeians by dividing them into tribes; but on the other hand
it is supported by the existence of places like Cameria and
others, which were Roman colonies and formed separate com-
monalties. The ancients had a tradition that the clause in the
twelve tables ordaining that the Fortes and Senates should have
equal rights, referred to certain places such as Tibur.
The heads of the plebes might very well insist upon the
establishment of equal laws for all, an object which was bene-
ficial not only to them but to the state in general, for the
disadvantages of such different statutes must have been great
and keenly felt: the purpose of the reform, therefore, was the
abolition of every thing which established painful and oppres-
sive differences between the two orders ; and the tribunes were
juslified in demanding it. There still was no connubium
between patricians and plebeians, and the children of mixed
marriages followed the baser side {deteriorem iiartem sequi). In
the middle ages, Lombards, Franks, Romans and others lived
together for centuries in the cities of Italy, each nation having
its own peculiar laws ; but the inconveniences arising from this
larryopia (in Demosthenes) is that state where even- free citizen is of equal
rank." See Hist, of Borne, ii.p.281, note 640.
n2
180 KAESO QUINCTIUS.
circumstance subsequently caused common statutes for all the
inhabitants of a town to be drawn up.
The tribunes, however, went further, and as the legislation
was also to comprise the political law, the legislators were at
the same time to make a reform of the constitution. The
Publilian laws had awakened in the nation a life which was
not in harmony with the ruling power : a new state of things
was necessarily springing up, which soon found itself in con-
flict with that which was established. Wliether the patricians
foresaw to what extent this law would operate, or whether it
was, from the beginning, intended to be more comprehensive
than we know, certain it is that they made the most vehement
opposition to the law, and had recovirse to acts of violence
similar to those which they had practised before. Kaeso
Quinctius, a son of Cincinnatus, made himself particularly
notoi-ious; he repeated all the intrigues of Appius Claudius,
and heading the young men of his own age and rank and the
clients, he by violence prevented the plebeians from voting.
A law {lex Junia) against such violence was passed either
then or the year before, which declared every one who dis-
turbed the tribunes in their functions guilty of high treason
towards the commonalty.^ A person guilty of this crime was
obliged to find sureties for a sum of money to be fixed by the
tribunes (the usual number of sureties was ten, each for 3000
asses), and if he did not await his verdict, the money was for-
feited to the commonalty. In virtue of this law, the tribunes
of the year following brought an accusation against Kaeso
Quinctius before the commonalty. On the trial he was charged
with having, in conjunction with a band of young patricians,
maltreated a plebeian so that he died. To us this seems in-
credible, but it was not so in antiquity : in like manner the
pentalides in Mitylene ran about with clubs assaulting the
plebeians of Mitylene. Nay, even in modern times similar
things have been done: during the minority of Louis the
Fourteenth such scenes occurred in the streets of Paris, where
no one dared to walk without arms, there being constant danger
of an attack. In the time of Queen Anne, there existed a
band of young nobles in London called Mohocks, who roamed
* It seems almost inconceivahle that Dionysius should place the passing of
this law thhty years earlier (a. r. 2G2); his reason perhaps was that Coriolanus
was said to have been condemned by it. — N.
LEGEND OF CINCINNATUS. 181
through the streets in disguise and attacked the people ; and in
the reign of King William, Lord Bolingbroke, as we see from
Swift's correspondence, belonged to such a band. Things of
this kind could not now occur in any European city, thanks to
police regulations, which, however much blamed by some
people, are of incalculable benefit. The accusation excited so
much exasperation against Kaeso Quinctius, that he did not
dare to appear before the plebes, but quitted the city. It is
related, that his father was reduced to poverty in consequence
of the tribunes having exacted from hirn the sums for which
sureties had been given. This is impossible; for the tribunes had
claims on none but the sureties, and if the latter wanted to
come upon the father, a sponsio must have preceded: even then,
a man of so noble a family cannot possibly have been de-
prived of rights which belonged to the meanest of his order;
he might surely have required his gentiles and clients to indem-
nify him. The whole account, like so many others, is an
invention in which a foundation of truth is embellished and
exaggerated; this making-up of the story might have been
done with sufficient skill to deceive us, but fortunately it is
managed so awkwardly that we cannot be misguided. Cincin-
natus is one of those characters whose names stand very high
in tradition, but concerning whom the records of history are
extremely scanty and almost amount to nothing. He after-
wards appears as consul without anything particular being
related of him ; it is only in the Aequian war that any striking
fact is recorded of him. There is a halo of wealth and a halo of
poverty ; the latter shines more especially in rhetorical times when
no one wishes to be poor, and when it appears inconceivable that
a great man should be poor. We may pass over the old story of
Cincinnatus ploughing his fields, etc. etc. ; but the great enthu-
siasm which arose from it is a mere interpolation in history. Peri-
zonius has observed that the same story is related of the dictator
Atilius Serranus(/e5M/co Serrane serentem),an(]. is therefore quite
apocryphal: it was probably manufactured out of the name Ser-
ranus(from severe), which, is surely more ancient than the dictator
who bore it. The story of Cincinnatus was preserved in a poem
on his dictatorship, of which the following is the substance.
A Roman army under the consul Minucius was surrounded
by the Aequians on mount Algidus; the senate, it is said,
sent an embassy to Cincinnatus, to offer him the dictatorsliip
182 APPIUS HERDONIUS.
The ambassadors found him on his small farm of four jugera,
on the other side of the river, engaged in ploughing. Having
heard the command of the senate, he complied with it, though
his heart bled at the recollection of the fate of his son. He
then chose a gallant but poor patrician, L. Tarquitius, for his
mmjister equitum, and ordered all men capable of bearing arms
to enlist, every one being required to bring with him twelve
palisades and provisions for five days. The army broke up in
the night, and, on its arrival the following morning, marched
in a column around the Aequian camp; the consul sallied out
from within, and the Aequians, who were themselves sur-
rounded by a ditch and palisades were obliged to surrender.
The whole story is a dream as much as anything that occurs
in the Heldenhuch. If the Roman army had been in the centre
and surrounded by an Aequian army, and the latter again by
a line of Romans, the Romans would have formed a circle
of at least five miles in circumference, so that the Aequians
might liave broken through them without any difficulty. I do
not mean, however, to assert that the dictatorship of Cincin-
natus is altogether unhistorical, though it is strange that a
similar event is afterwards related in the sieo-e of Ardea, in
which the same Cloelius Gracchus is mentioned as commander
of the Aequians. Cincinnatus now made use of his power to
get Volscius, who had boi'ne witness against Kaeso Quinctius,
sent into exile, probably by the curies, for the centuries do
not seem to have then possessed judicial power. At that time,
Kaeso Quinctius was no longer living, according to the express
statement of Livy: he had probably fallen the year before in
consequence of transactions which shew those times in their
true colours. After he had gone into exile, the tribunes
observed symptoms of a conspiracy among the young patricians,
and there were reports that Kaeso was within the city. It is
further related that during the night the city was surprised
from the side of the Carmental gate,whic]i was open, by a band of
patrician clients, under the command of the Sabine, Appius
Hcrdonius, who had come down the river in boats. It is
manifest that it would have been impossible to collect a suf-
ficient number of boats to convey an army of 4,000 men,
without its being known at Rome, more especially as the
Romans were at peace with the Sabincs; and admitting that it
was necessary to leave the gate open on account of a consecra-
DISSATISFACTION OF THE TRIBUNES. 183
tion, it must surely have been guarded by double sentinels;
the enemy, moreover, could not possibly pass the field of Mars
and occupy the Capitoline hill without being observed. There
must, therefore, have been treachery. In the night, the people
were roused from their sleep by a cry that the Capitol was in
the hands of the enemy, who massacred every one that did not
join them, and called u]Don the slaves to make common cause
with them. This naturally created not only the greatest con-
sternation, but a general mistrust; the j)lGbeians imagined
that it was an artifice of the patricians who had stirred up their
clients to take possession of the Capitol, in order thereby to
intimidate the plebeians; they further believed that, as during
a tumultus, the consuls would command them to take the
military oath unconditionally, lead them to a place beyond the
limits of the tribunitian power, and then require them to
renounce their rights. The tribunes accordingly declared that
they could not allow the commonalty to take up arms before
the laws were passed. We may indeed believe that the
government was innocent in this affair, but it seems certain
that there was evidence of a conspiracy in which Kacso
Quinctius was an accomplice, and that a promise had been
given to Appius Herdonius to make him king of Kome if the
imdertaking should succeed. It is not impossible that this
may rather have been a consj^iracy of the gentes mmores, for
Ave can still perceive a great gulf between them and the
majores. When the real state of the case became known, the
tribunes gave up their opposition and allowed the commonalty
to take the oath; whereupon the Capitol was stormed under
the command of the consul. At this time there seems fortu-
nately to have been a truce with the Aequians, but yet Rome
was in a most dangerous condition, since no firm reliance
could be placed upon the continuance of the truce. The consul
Valerius, the son of Poplicola, the same who is said to have
fallen at lake Eegillus, was killed; the Capitol was taken by
storm, the slaves found there were nailed on crosses, and all
the freemen were executed. There seems to be no doubt that
Kaeso Quinctius was among the latter; and this may have led
his father in the following year to take revenge in a manner
which is pardonable indeed, but ignoble, by exiling A''olscius
the accuser of his son. The tribunes of the people are said
to have prevented this accusation beine; made, a remarkable
184 THE VOLSCIANS.
instance of the greatness of their power even at that time ; but
perhaps, they only afforded protection to the accused, and did
not allow him to be violently dragged into court. The expres-
sion patricios coire non passi sunt is not applicable till later times.
The disputes about the trial lasted for a couple of years,
Cincinnatus either as consul or dictator (probably the latter),
refusing to lay down his office until he should have obtained
the condemnation of Volscius. The latter went into exile; his
surname Fictor, probably fiom. finger e, is one of the examples
in which either the name arose from the story, or the story
from the name: so that the statement, "the plebeian M.
Volscius Fictor was condemned," gave rise to the story that
he had given false evidence.
It is obvious, that Cincinnatus has undeservedly been deified
by posterity : in the time of the decemvirs and tyrants, he did
nothing; and twenty years after this occurrence, he acted
completely in the interest of a faction, and shed the innocent
blood of Maelius.
LECTURE XXIIL
Aftek tlie war of a.u. 296, the history of Home takes a
different turn. We have no express statements as to the
circumstances which gave it this new direction; but the con-
currence of several circumstances leaves no doubt that at that
time the Eomans concluded a peace and treaty of friendship
with the Volscians of Ecetra, on condition of restoring Antium
to the Volscians, so that this town assumed the character which
it retained for 120 years, that is, till after the Latin war.
Henceforth then, the Volscians no longer appeared every year
on mount Algidus, and the Aequians alone continued to be
enemies, but they were of no importance. From this time the
Antiatans and Ecetrans took part in the festivals on the Alban
mount, that is, in the Latin holidays ; this is referred to the
times of Tarquinius Superbus, but at that time Antium was
not yet a Volscian town.
Previously to the year A.u. 290, the census amounted to
104,000, and nfter the plague, this number was diminished
STORY OF CORIOLANUS. 158
only by one eighth, whereas one fourth of the senators had
been carried off; but the cause of this apparent discrepancy is,
that the Volscians had been admitted to the right of municipium :
citizens they were not, and consequently as the census lists
must have included them, they did not embrace Roman citi-
zens only. But it is more especially the story of Coriolanus
that furnishes a proof of this treaty. He is said to have made
the Romans promise to restore the places which they had
taken from the Volscians, and to admit the Volscians as isopo-
lites. Both things were done: Antium was restored, and the
rights of isopolity were granted. We must either suppose that
the events recorded of the great Volscian war were transferred
to this story, or that the episode about Coriolanus formed the
catastrophe of this war, which was followed by the peace ; that
is, that Coriolanus really was the commander of the Volscians,
and mediated the peace between them and the Romans.
These wars, from a.u. 262 to A.u. 266 belong to the cate-
gory of impossibilities, and that the history of Coriolanus is
inserted in a wrong place is perfectly clear. The law against
the disturbers of the assembly of the people could not have
been passed previously to the Publilian rogations. If the
Volscians had appeared at the gates of Rome as early as is
stated by our historians, no domain land would have been left
about the distribution of which the consul Sp. Cassius could
have proposed a law, and there would have been no subject of
dispute. After the unfortunate Volscian wars, in fact, the
commotions about the agrarian law really did cease, because
the matter in dispute no longer existed. Further, if the war
of Coriolanus in A.u. 262 had been carried on in the manner
in which it appears in our accounts, the Romans would have
had no place to restore to the Volscians: whereas after the
great Volscian war, Rome was in possession of several import-
ant places and was obliged to restore Antium. Lastly, the
isopolity which was demanded was actually granted in the year
A.U. 296, as is proved by the numbers of the census.
As regards the giving up of Antium, the Roman historians
say that it revolted; which in the case of a colony is absurd.
The Roman colony was only withdrawn, and the ancient Tyr-
rhenian population was left to the Volscians. Nay, the very
circumstance, in consequence of which the war of Coriolanus
IS said to have broken out, namely the famine during which
186 STORY OF CORIOLANUS.
a Greek king of Sicily is stated to have sent a present of com
to Eome, points to a later period. After the destructive
Veientine war in the consulship of Virginius and Servilius,
the fields around Eome had been set on fire at harvest-time
and were laid waste also at the following seed-time. In a.U.
262, Gelo was not reigning at Syracuse, but at the utmost was
a prince of the insignificant town of Gela. Compared with the
old Koman annalists, who mentioned the tyi-ant Dionysius as
the king who had sent the present, Dionysius is very sensible,
for he proves that that monarch did not reign till eighty years
later; but Dionysius himself must be severely censured for
mentioning Gelo. After the Veientine war, indeed, according
to the more probable chronology, Gelo, or at least his brother
Hiero, was king of Syracuse, and owing to his hostility to-
wards the Etruscans, he may actually have had good reasons
for supporting the Romans. All circumstances therefore point
to this as the real time. The story of Coriolanus is so generally
known that I need not give a long account of it. The cause of
its being transferred to a wrong place was the mention of the
temple of Fortuna Muliebris, as I have already remarked, but
this temple certainly belongs to an earHer period : a daughter
of Valerius Poplicola is said to have been the first priestess.
Now if it were connected with the history of Coriolanus, his
wife or mother would undoubtedly have been appointed the
first priestess, as a reward for their services in behalf of the
state.
The story runs as follows: — C. or as others name him, Cn.
Marcius Coriolanus, a very eminent young patrician, probably
of the lesser gentes (for these are more particularly opposed to
the plebes), greatly distinguished himself in the wars against
the Antiatans. He was an officer in the army which the con-
suls led against the Volscians : the year to which this campaign
belongs was, of course not mentioned in the poem. The army
besieged Corioli ; the Volscians advancing from Antium wished
to relieve the place, but Coriolanus took it by storm while the
army of the consul Avas fighting against the Antiatans. From
this feat, he received his surname and acquired great celebrity.
But while in the war he appears as a young man, he is at the
same time a member of the senate and at the head of the oli-
garchic faction. A famine was raging in the city: in contra-
diction to the plebeian statement that the plebes during the
ACCUSATION BY THE TRIBUNES. 187
secession destroyed nothing, we are told that they had in fact
laid waste the country; but the whole account is evidently of
patrician origin, and has a strong party colouring. Various
but useless attempts were made to procure corn ; money was
sent to Sicily to purchase it, but the Greek king sent back the
money and gave the corn as a present : it was perhaps a gift
from the Carthaginians. The senate, it is said, debated as to
what was to be done with the corn, and Coriolanus demanded
that it should neither be distributed nor sold, unless the com-
monalty would renounce the rights they had lately acquired —
they were to give up their birth-right for a mess of pottage.
Another proposal not much more praiseworthy, was that the
corn should be sold to the commonalty as a corporation, from
which individual members might afterwards purchase it ; hence
the plebeians were to pay the purchase-money twice : this plan
was adopted, but it naturally produced great exasperation, and
on this occasion it also became known that Coriolanus had
insisted upon making use of the distress for the purpose of
abolishing the privileges of the plebeians. Livy relates the
course of events briefly ; but Dionysius gives a very full ac-
count of them. According to the former, the tribunes brought
a charge against Coriolanus as guilty of a violation of the peace ;
and in this they were fully justified by the sworn treaty of the
sacred mount. The charge was, of course (thougli Dionysius
does not see this) brought before the plebes, and Coriolanus
being summoned before the coiu't of the tribes, had the right
to quit the country before the sentence was pronounced. A
person could do this after he had given sureties, but it was not
done in the way usually supposed. He who had to dread an
unfavourable issue could not go into exile in the manner de-
scribed in our manuals of antiquities, but he might wait till all
the tribes had voted except one, as Polybius says. When the
majority had decided against him he was condemned; but if he
had taken up his abode as a citizen of a Latin town, for exam-
ple, the decision was void, but the sureties, at least in later
times, had to pay. Livy says that Coriolanus met the accu-
sation with haughtiness, but that on the day of judgment he
departed before the sentence was pronomiced. Coriolanus was
perhaps the first who was allowed to give sureties. The com-
mon tradition is, that he now went to the Volscians. This is
true (and up to this point indeed I believe the whole story),
188 EMBASSY TO CORIOLANUS.
but his going to Attius TuUus at Antium is apocryphal, and a
mere copy of the story of Themistocles going to Admetus king
of the Molossians. He is said io have stirred up tlie Volscians,
who were quite desponding, to venture again upon the war:
this is a Roman exaggeration intended to disguise the distress
which had been caused at Rome by the Volscian arms. It is
further related that he conquered one place after another; first
Circeii, then the towns south of the Appian road, and next
those on the Latin road ; and that at last he advanced even to
the gates of Rome. This is irreconcilable with what follows:
Coriolanus now appears at the Roman frontier on the Marrana,
the canal which conducts the water of the low country of
Grotta Ferrata into the Tiber, about five miles from Rome.
The Romans sent to him an embassy, first of ten senators to
whom he granted a respite of thirty days, and then of three
more, as the fetiales did when a war was not yet determined
on ; thereupon priests were sent to him and at last the matrons,
who moved his heart and induced him to retire.
All this is very poetical, but is at once seen to be impos-
sible when closely looked into. Livy makes a curious remark,
in saying that the fact of the consuls of this year having car-
ried on a war againstthe Volscians would be altogether unknown,
if it were not clear from the treaty of Spurius Cassius with the
Latins, that one of them, Postumus Cominius, was absent, the
treaty being concluded by Cassius alone. But Livy thinks
that the glory of Coriolanus, which eclipsed every thing else,
was the cause of the omission — a valuable testimony ! the an-
cient traditions then did not state that the consul had anything
to do with the falling of Corioli, but attributed it to Coriolanus
alone. Now, as we have before seen, it is not true that Corio-
lanus received his surname from the taking of Corioli, such
names derived from conqiiercd places not occurring till the
time of Scipio Africanus : further, Corioli at that period was
not a Volscian but a Latin town ; it became Volscian in the
great Volscian war, which we call the war of Coriolanus, and
was not destroyed till afterwards. The fact of its being a
Latin town is clear from the list of the thirty towns which
took part in the battle of lake Rcgillus, though I admit that
this list may not have been originally drawn up with reference
to that battle, but rather to the treaty of Sp. Cassius. The
name of Coriolanus thus signifies nothing more than the names
REPUTED DEATH OF CORIOLANUS. 189
Eegillensis, Vibulanus^ Mugillanus and others, and was derived
from Corioli, either because that town stood in the relation of
proxenia or clientela to his family, or for some other reason.
Nothing therefore is historically known about Coriolanus,
beyond the fact that he wanted to break the contract with the
plebeians, and that he was condemned in consequence. His
subsequent history is equally apocryphal. He was condemned
as a man who had violated sworn rights (Jeges sacraioe), and
whoever was guilty of that crime, had accursed himself and
his family; it is further said, that such persons were sold as
slaves near the temple of Ceres. How then could his wife and
childi-en continue to live at Rome, if such a sentence had been
pronounced upon them ? It is impossible to think of mercy in
those times. The places against which Coriolanus had made
war were allied with the Romans, and as whoever made war
against them was at war with Rome, the Romans ought to have
marched out against him. Consequently, when he appeared
before Rome he could no longer offer peace or war, but only a
truce or terms of a truce; and the Romans, on the other hand,
could not possibly conclude peace on their own responsibility,
without consulting the Latins and Hernicans. The old tradi-
tion goes on to say, that the interdictio aquae et ignis which had
been pronounced against Coriolanus was withdrawn, but that
he did not accept the withdrawal, and made demands on
behalf of the Volscians; but when the matrons had moved him,
he departed and dropped all the stipulations he had made for
them. From that moment we find no further trace of him,
except the statement of Fabius, that up to an advanced age he
lived among the Volscians, and that one day he said: " It is
only in his old age that a man feels what it is to live in exile
away from his country." Others, seeing that the Volscians
could not have been satisfied with such a mode of actinof,
stated that they followed him on account of his personal in-
fluence, but that afterwards, being abandoned by him, they
stoned him to death on the accusation of Attius Tullus. But
this was not believed by Livy, because it was contrary to the
account of Fabius.
We cannot say that the whole history of Coriolanus is a
fiction, he is too prominent a person in Roman tradition to be
altogether fabulous. But as regards the statement that he was
a commander of the Volscian armies, it must be traced to the
190 PROBABLE TRUTH CONCEKISriNG CORIOLANUS.
natural feeling that it is less painful to be conquered by one's
own countrymen than by foreigners : with such national feel-
ings, the Eomans pictured to themselves the Volscian war, and
thus consoled themselves and the Latins for the disgrace of the
defeat, in consequence of which the Volscians made such ex-
tensive conquests. In the same spirit, they invented stories
about the generosity of Coriolanus and about his death. I
believe that Fabius was right in asserting that Coriolanus lived
in exile among the Volscians to his old age. The statement
that Rome was on the brink of destruction is probable, and it
may be admitted that the description of tlie distress is not quite
fictitious, but it cannot be denied that the three different em-
bassies of senators, priests and matrons, are inventions made
for the purpose of elevating the hero. The two estates mutually
decry each other in their accounts ; hence the plebeians appear
from the first quite downcast and the patricians quite proud,
as if they would hear of no reconciliation with Coriolanus.
I believe that the truth is very different. At that time there
still existed a great many who had emigrated with the Tar-
quins, and they gathered together wherever they found a
rallying point; now I believe that Coriolanus, after withdraw-
ing to the Volscians, formed such a rallying point for them.
As he thus found a small army of Eoman emigrants who were
joined by Volscians, he marched with them to the Roman
fi-ontier, not that he imagined he would be able to force his
way through the gates or walls of Rome, but he encamped
near it and declared war, just like the persons in Dithmarsch
who had renounced their country. He first granted a term of
thirty days, that the senate might consider whether his de-
mands were to be complied with or not. As the senate did
not come to a decision^ he waited three days longer — a term
which a state or general demanding reparation takes to consi-
der whether he shall declare war, or in what manner he is to
treat the proposals that may have been made to him. Coriola-
nus was ixndoubtedly joined by the partizans of Tarquinius, by
many who had been sent into exile in consequence of crimes,
and lastly by Volscians. The republic invited him to return ;
the entreaties of his mother, his wife and the other matrons,
who implored him, can have no other meaning than that he
should return alone and not bring with him that terrible band
of men. He probably answered that he could not return alone
I
PEACE WITH THE VOLSCIANS. 191
and forsake his companions. If he had returned, he could
have done nothing else than set himself up as a tyrant, as waa
so often the case in Greece with the (fivydSef;, whose return was
a real scourge to their country^ they being almost under the
necessity of crushing the party by whom they had been ex-
pelled. We here see him act in a noble spirit, refusing to
return in this manner, and rather dismissing his own relatives
on whom he was obliged to make an impression by renouncing
his own country: a great man might indeed make such an
impression in those times. Towards the Volscians he behaved
with perfect justice, and it is possible that he actually came
forward as mediator between them and Eome, and prevailed
upon the latter to give up Antium and grant the isopolity. He
thus discharged his duty towards those who had received him,
and Eome gained through him the immense advantage of a
reconciliation with her most dangerous enemy; the Volscians
had pressed Eome most severely, and there now remained only
the Aequians, whom it was easy to resist. The childish vanity
of the Eomans has so completely disguised this Volscian peace
that until our own times, no one understood it ; without it, the
whole history would be incoherent; it saved Eome and gave
her time to recover her strength ; an opportunity which she
used with great wisdom.
LECTUEE XXIV.
It is one of the distinguishing features of the history of
Eome, that many an event which had every appearance of
being ruinous was the very means of producing a favourable
crisis in her affairs. After the plague and the unfortunate war
of the Volscians, we might have expected to see Eome reduced
to extremities: the peace with the Volscians was, in the eyes
of posterity, to some extent a humiliation, and for this reason
they concealed it; but how wise and advantageous it was for
Eome under the circumstances, we have already seen ; we may
assert that through it Eome acquired a power which it Avovdd
never have obtained even by the most successful issue of the
192 C0N8EQUENCES OF THE VOLSCIAN WAR.
war. The destruction of the Latin state virtually did away
with the equality which was secured by the treaty of
Sp.Cassius. The common opinion, as found in Dionysius, and
also in Livy, is, that the Latins were subjects of the Romans,
and that the war under Manlius and Decius in the year a.u.
410 (415), was a kind of insurrection. This is contradicted
by the statement of Cincius in Festus, according to which the
Latins, in his opinion, ever since the time of Tullus Hostilius
formed a distinct repul:)lic, and had the supremacy alternately
with Rome. The truth of the matter is this : from the time of
Servius Tullius down to Tarquinius Superbus, the Latins stood
in the relation of equality with Rome, but under Tarquinius
they were subdued; this state of submission was interrupted
by the insurrection of Latirmi after the expulsion of the kings,
but was perhaps restored for a few years after the battle of lake
Regillus, until at length equality was re-established by the
treaty of Sp. Cassius. It actually existed for a period of thirty
years; but when the Latin towns were partly occupied and
partly destroyed by the Volscians, and when scarcely the
fourth part of the Latin confederacy continued to exist; this
remnant could of course no longer lay claim to the same
equality with Rome as the entire confederacy had done before.
It can be proved that at the beginning of the fourth century
of Rome, the Latin towns had ceased to be united by any
internal bond ; they scarcely had a common court of justice,
and some towns, such as Ardea, stood completely alone. The
Latins now again came under the supremacy of Rome, as in
the reign of Tarquinius Superbus. To distinguish what is
true for different periods is the only thread that can gviide us
through the labyrinth of Roman history. Isolated statements
must be examined with great attention, and not be absolutely
rejected ; even contradictions are of importance in their place.
As regards the Hernicans, I cannot say with perfect certainty
whether they were reduced to the same condition as the
Latins, though it appears to me very probable. After the
Gallic conflagration, the Latins again shook off the Roman
dominion and renewed their claims to equality. This claim
gave rise to a war which lasted thirty-two, or according to the
more probable chronology, twenty-eight years, and ended in
a peace by which the ancient treaty of Sp. Cassius was restored.
Owing to the consequences of the Volscian war, Rome in the
COAIMOTIONS IN ROME. 193
meantime enjoyed the advantage of standing alone and bein^
unshackled.
In the city of Rome itself the ferment was still great, and
according to Dion Cassius the assassination of distinguished
plebeians was not an uncommon occurrence. Amid these
commotions, the agrarian law and the bill for a revision of the
legislature were constantly brought forward. It is impossible
to say who induced the plebes to increase the number of their
tribunes to ten, two for each class: their authority certainly
could not be enlarged by this numerical augmentation. At
the time of this increase, we meet with a strange occurrence,
which however is very obscure. Valerius Maximus says that
a tribune, P. Mucins, ordered his nine coUeag-ues to be burnt
alive as guilty of high treason^ because, under the guidance of
Sp. Cassius, they had opposed the completion of the election of
magistrates. The times are here evidently in perfect confusion ;
for ten tribunes were first elected in the year A.u. 297, and the
consulship of Sp. Cassius occurs twenty-eight years earlier.
There are two ways in which wc may account for this tradition :
these tribunes had either acted as traitors towards the plebes,
which is scarcely conceivable, as they were elected by the
tribes: or P. Mucins was not a tribune of the people, or at
least the sentence was not pronounced by him, but by the
curies, who thus punished the tribunes for violating the peace.
There must be some truth in the story since it is mentioned by
Zonaras also (from Dion Cassius) ; it is not impossible that this
occurrence is identical with the accusation of nine tribunes
mentioned by Livy about the time of the Canuleian disputes.
I shall pass over the insignificant wars with the Aequians
and Sabines, as well as some legislative enactments, though
they are of great interest in Roman antiquities, and dwell
at some length upon the Tcrentilian law; in which the
tribunes demanded an equality of rights for the two estates.
It would be highly interesting if we could know the detail
of the disputes on the Terentilian law; but this is impossible,
and we have only quite isolated statements to guide us.
One of them is, that a ti'ireme^ with three ambassadors, was
sent from Rome for the purpose of making a collection of the
Greek laws, especially those of Athens. The credibility of
this account has been the subject of much discussion, and I
now retract the opinion which I expressed in the first edition
VOL. I. O
194 ATHENIAN AND llOMAN
of my Roman history; 1 had then, like my predecessors, not
considered that the two questions whether the Roman law was
derived from the Attic law, and whether Roman ambassadors
did go to Athens are perfectly distinct. If a person asks : Arc
the Roman laws derived from those of the Athenians? the
answer must be decidedly negative. There are only two
Solonian laws, which are said to be found in the Pandects
also, but these are quite insignificant and might with equal
justice be derived from the laws of other nations; it would not
be difficult to find some German laws which likewise ai^jrcc
with Roman ones. ]\Ioreover we cannot tell how far the
national afiinity between Greeks, Romans, and Pelasgians,
might produce a resemblance in their laws. Nothing that is
peculiar to the Roman law is found in the Attic law; the
former is quite peculiar in the law of persons and in the law of
things. The Greeks never had the law of paternal power as
we find it at Rome; they never had a law by which a wife in
marrying entered into the relation of a daughter to her
husband; and in regard to property they never had any thing-
like the jus mancipii; the distinction between property acquired
by purchase and absolute property, between property and
hereditary possession does not exist in the Attic law; the
Roman laws of inheritance, of debt and of contracts of loan,
were perfectly foreign to the Athenians, and the Roman form
of procedure again was quite different from that of the Athen-
ians. These points are well known to every one acquainted
with the Attic orators. The Attic law belono's to a much
O
later time, when the ancient forms had already become greatly
softened and polished; in them we behold a state of civil
society which was wanting in the very thing which charac-
terizes the Romans. All that we know of the laws of other
Greek nations is equally foreign to those of Rome, and if per-
chance the laws of the states of INIagna Graecia had any re-
semblance to the Roman, it certainly must have originated in
their common Italian origin; thus the law o^ ager limitotus in
the table of Heraclea seems to have been like the law estab-
lished at Rome.
From these circumstances, many have concluded that the
account of the embassy to Greece is not entitled to belief, but
the case may be looked upon in a different light. There is,
perhaps, none of us who has not at some time or other, after
INSTITUTIONS COMrAUED. 195
mature consideration, undertaken things whicli liave never
been accomplished: this may happen to a state as well as to
individuals. The embassy falls exactly iu the time of Pericles,
between the Persian and the Peloponnesiau wars, wlien Athens
was at her highest prosperity, and when the fame of that most
powerful and wise city had spread far and wide. The fact
that at a much later period (the age of Cassander) when a
bust was to be erected to the wisest among the Greeks, the
Roman senate did not select Socrates, but Pythagoras, was
quite in the spirit of an Italian nation ; but their setting up a
statue to Alcibiades as the bravest of the Greeks shews how
flimiliar Athens was to the minds of the Romans; I may add
that the\' did not judge incorrectly in regarding Alcibiades
as the bravest. It may, therefore, after all, not have been
quite in vain that the Romans sent an embassy to Greece; and
they appear to have made the proper use of it in regard to
their political constitution.
Another tradition respecting this legislation states, that
Hermodorus, a wise Ephesian, atIio was staying at Rome, was
consulted by the decemvirs. He is said to have been a friend
of the great Heraclitus, and to have been exiled from Ephesus
because he was too wise .^ A statua palliata, which was be-
lieved to be of him, was shewn at Rome dovm to a late period :
the tradition is ancient, and Hermodorus was not so celebrated
as to induce the Romans without any motive to call him their
instructor. He might act as adviser, as it was the avowed
object of the legislation to abolish the differences between the
two estates, to modify the constitution so as to make them as
much as possible form one united whole, and lastly to effect a
limitation of the consular imperium. But the civil code was
not by any means derived from Greek sources; for there are
provisions in Roman law which it is certain Avere expunged
from the law of Athens even by Solon ; the criminal code pre-
sents still greater differences.
It was from the beginning the intention to appoint a mixed
commission of legislators. In Livy it seems as if the plebeians
had entertained the unreasonable idea of chooslno- the leoisla-
tors, five in number, from their own order exclusively; but
Dionysius states the number at ten, the intention evidently
being that five should be patricians and five plebeians. Now
o2
196 THE DECEMVIRS.
there is another strange statement in Livy, namely, that the
plebeians urgently entreated that if a revision of the laws was
to be undertaken, and the patricians would not allow them to
take a part in it, the patricians themselves might begin it
alone, and confer with them concerning the principles only.
The rational conclusion was therefore come to that the members
of a mixed commission would be involved in perpetual quar-
rels, and that it would be better to elect them from only one
estate, provided the fundamental principles were agreed upon.
It is, nevertheless, a remarkable fact that all authors concur in
stating that the obnoxious laws, those which were injurious to
plebeian liberty, were contained in the last two tables, the
work of the second decemvirs; the first ten are not blamed,
they merely granted isonomy, respecting which the parties had
already agreed, as Appius is made, by Livy, to say — se omnia
jura summis infimisque aequasse. The laws, which had hitherto
been different for patricians and plebeians, now became the
same for both orders, so that personal imprisonment and per-
sonal security might take place in the case of a patrician also.
There can be no doubt that the first ten decemvirs were all
patricians of ancient families, and according to the recently
discovered consular Fasti their title was decemviri consvlari
potestate legihus scribendis. They were appointed in the place
of the consuls, the praefectus urbi, and the quaestors. But are
Livy and Dionysius right in saying that the tribuneship like-
wise was suspended? It is incredible: for it would have been
madness in the plebeians thus to allow their hands to be tied,
and to renounce the protection of their tribunes; it is not till
the second decemvirate that we find the plebeians appellationi
invicem cedentes, and then C. Julius brought a criminal case
before the people. The tribunes must have said: we agree
that there shall be ten patrician lawgivers, but the continuance
of the leges sacratae is to us a guarantee of our rights; — and
the leges sacratae referred to the tribuneship. The error is very
conceivable, and undoubtedly arose from the fact that the tri-
buneship was suspended vmdcr the second decemvirate. If we
bear in mind that under tlic first decemvirs the tribuneship
was not suspended, and that the object of their labours was a
common law for all, every thing becomes clear; all points in
regard to which there might be a collision of the two estates,
were reserved for subsequent deliberation.
CONSTITUTION OF THE DECEMVIRATE. 197
But besides this task of establishing a general law, the, com-
missioners had to settle the constitution on the principle that
the two estates were to be put on a footing of equality. In
the projected constitution, two points were agreed upon, namely
that the tribuneship should be abolished, and that the highest
power should be given to men of both orders. The last five
names mentioned by Livy in the second decemvirate are
plebeian and belong to families which do not occur in the Fasti
previously to the Licinian law, and afterwards only as plebeian
consuls; Dionysius expressly recognises three of them as ple-
beians, and the two others who, it is said, were chosen by
Appius and the nobles from the lesser gentcs, were likewise
plebeians, as must be evident to every one acquainted with the
Eoman gentes; Avhence Livy places them at the end of his list:
the mistake of Dionysius arose from a confusion of the two
decemvirates. ^ The first decemvirate represented the decent
primi of the senate, who were elected after a irpo^ovXev/xa
of the senate by the centuries ; but the second was a crvvap')(^la
similar to that of the Attic archons, perhaps occasioned by a
knowledge of the Attic laws. The second election was quite
different from the first, the noblest, like the lowest patricians,
canvassed for the votes of the plebeians (canvassing here
appears for the first time), so that the election was perfectly
free. Of these decemvirs six were military tribunes, three
patricians and three plebeians, and these six were in reality the
commanders in war; of the remaining four, two must be re-
garded as invested with censorial power and with that of the
praefectus z^riz combined with the presidency of the senate; the
other two who had the authority of quaestors, had likewise in
certain cases to perform military functions. One in each of
these two pairs, of course, was a patrician and the other a ple-
beian. Now when Dionysius read that there were three patri-
cian and three plebeian military tribunes, he might easily
overlook the fact that the remaining four were likewise equally
divided between the two orders, especially as the ancient books
were probably written in a language which was very unintel-
* As long as I see such an error, and cannot rationally explain it, except on
the supposition that it was committed by the author in a thoughtless moment, I
feel uneasy; I cannot rest until I discover the source of the error; and I beg of
you to exercise your minds in the same manner. Most of the errors in Livy
and Dionysius are not the result of ignorance but of false premises.— N.
198 NEW CONSTITUTION.
ligible to him. The three decemvirs whom Dionysius recog-
nises as plebeians arc, Q. PoeteUus, C.Duilius and Sp.Oppius.
This constitution was intended to remain for ever. We can
distinctly see what was the task the decemvirs had to perform
and how they endeavoured to do it. The distinction between
the gentes majores and minores disappears from this time. The
legislators considered the state from the point of view of the
government, and they reasoned thus: " Since the Publilian law
the state has been unfortunate ; the tribunes have the power of
discussing any subject whether agreeable or not; it is therefore
a matter of importance to transfer this right of the tribunes to
the decemvirs, as thereby the plebes too would obtain what
they could fairly claim, for the plebes and populus must stand
side by side and yet form one whole. The plebes therefore
no longer want their tribunes, since they may appeal from the
patrician decemvirs to the plebeian ones. It is, moreover, fair
that patricians and plebeians should have an equal share in the
senate, but the plebeians are to come in gradually until they
shall have reached a certain number. The two estates must
be carefully kept apart, yet be endowed with equal powers.
The former right of the gentes to send their representatives
into the senate, and the custom of a curia (or perhaps the con-
suls though their power was much more limited than that of
the censors of later times) electing a new member in case of a
gens becoming extinct, are to be supplanted by a new institu-
tion, and a new magistracy must be created to superintend and
decide upon the civil condition of the citizens, for example, to
enrol an aerarius among the plebeians, or to raise the plebeian
■ nobles to the rank of patricians." These are the principles on
which the second decemvirs acted in their legislation: the con-
sequences of these laws, and how little they answered the
expectations formed of them, we shall see hereafter.
LECTUEE XXV.
Scarcely any part of the civil law contained in the twelve
tables has come down to us; one of the few iiortlons with which
UNLIMITED RIGHT TO MAKE A WILL. 199
wc arc acquainted is an enactment of one of the last two tables,
that there should be no connubium between the patres and
plebes. This enactment is so characteristic, that we may learn
from it the spirit which pervaded the whole legislation ; it is
generally regarded as an innovation, for example, by Diony-
sius, and by Cicero in his work De lie Publica; but this
opinion is based upon the erroneous supposition that all these
laAvs were new, as if previously the Komans had either had no
laws at all or quite different ones. But it never occurred to
the mind of the ancients to frame an entirely new legislation;
all they did was to improve that which had been handed down
to them by their ancestors. As the intention of the decemviral
leuislation was to brino; the estates into closer connection and
to equalise the laws for both, such a separation of the two
orders assuredly cannot have been an innovation. In the
middle ages too there is scarcely a single trace of such perfectly
arbitrary legislation; and as I have been told by Savigny, it is
not found any where except in the laws of the Emperor
Frederick II. The opinion of our authors is based on nothing
but their own conception of a new legislation, and is therefore
of no authority; on the contrary, it is in the highest degree
improbable that a separation of this kind, with all its subsequent
irritation should have been introduced at a moment wdien so
strong a desire after equalit}^ had been evinced.
But there are some other points which I do consider as inno-
vations of the greatest importance, such as the unlimited right
of making a will, which was established by tlie twelve tables.
This right was conceded to every pate?' familias, but the later
jiu'ists introduced most important changes for the purpose of
limiting this dangerous liberty: it cannot have existed from
the earliest times. The consequence was a double form of
making a will, namely in presence of the curies and in pro-
cinctu, that is before the symbol of the centuries, because they
represented the exercitus vocatus: before these the testator
declared his will, and if it was previously to a battle, the
soldier made this declaration in presence of the army itself;
Avhen a patrician wanted to dispose of his property, the chief
pontiff assembled the curies, which had to sanction his will.
The reason of this lay in the nature of the circumstances. If a
person left children behind him it was probably not customary
in ancient times to make a will ; but if he died without issue
200 CUSTOM OF THE ISLAND OF FEHMERN.
his relatives succeeded to his property; if there were no rela-
tives the property went to the gentes, and if the whole gens
was extinct it went to the curia. Formerly when I read in
the Aulularia of Plautus': Nam noster nostrae qui est magister
curiae, Dividere argeiiti dixit nwnmos in viros, I used to think
that it was a pure translation from the Greek, for Euclio repre-
sents an aerarian, and how does he get into a curia? But the
-whole relation is purely Eoman : property was left to the curia,
and this inheritance was divided viritim.^ Here then we have
a good reason why the sanction of the curies was required. It
is to be regretted that the leaf in Gains which contained this
law is illegible. In like manner the plebeians too seem to have
had their gentilician inheritances, which ultimately fell to the
tribe, and hence here also the exercitus vocatus, that is the cen-
turies, had to srive its consent, because a will could not be made
without the auspices, which the plebeian tribes did not possess.
Similar regulations concerning the succession to property exist
to this day in the island of Fehmern, as I learned last summer
during an excursion. The inhabitants consist of two clans or
gentes with the laws and manners of Dithmarsch; and if a
member of these gentes wants to make his will, he must give
to his cousins {gentiles) a small sum as a compensation for the
money which in reality belongs to them as his gentiles. In
Dithmarsch Itself this law has disappeared, nor have I been
able to discover any trace of it in other parts of Germany, a
proof that very important and general laws may often disap-
pear and leave but few and slender vestiges. The curies when
called upon to sanction a will, were of course at liberty to
refuse it, but as it was a law of the twelve tables: Paterfamilias
uti legassit supei' pecunia tutelnve suae rei ita jus esio, it is evi-
dent that the sanction was only dicis causa. This regulation
had an incredible influence upon Eoman manners; but it was
necessary, because the connublum between the two orders was
not permitted, for even the child of a plebeian by a patrician
woman could not by law succeed to the father's property; and
if the father wished to make a bequest to such a child, he
needed a special law to enable him to do so. "Wlien the con-
nubium was afterwards established, the freedom of making u
' i. 2. 29; comp. ii. 2. 2. — Ed.
'' The nature of the curies liad become essentially altered in the course of time,
bcc Ilist. of Home, ii. p. 319. — Ed.
THE LAW or DEBT. 201
will nevertheless continued to exist, and in the corruption of
later ages, led to the most disgraceful abuses; the lex Furia
testamentaria which for good reasons I assign to the period
about A.U. 450, is a proof that a tendency to abuse was mani-
fested even at that early time.
The law of debt likewise must have been contained in one
of the last two tables, since Cicero describes them as thoroughly
unfair ; for this was binding upon the plebeians only : the last
two tables undoubtedly consisted of nothing but exceptions.
The most important part of the decemviral legislation is the
jus publicum, a fact which was formerly quite overlooked by
jurists, who saw in it a code of laws like that of Justinian,
only very scanty and barbarous. But Cicero and Livy ex-
pressly call it fons omnis publici privatique juris, and Cicero^ in
his imitations of the laws of the twelve tables also speaks of the
administration of the republic. All the institutions, however,
which continued to exist unaltered, were surely not touched
upon in the twelve tables, as, for example, the whole constitu-
tion of the centuries; but we have very few traces of the
changes in the public law which were introduced by them.
One of them is the enactment, that no more privilegia should
be granted, i. e. no laws against individuals, or condemnations
of individuals. Hence we must infer that previously there
existed regulations against individuals similar to the ostracism
at Athens. It is probable, moreover, that the mutual accusa-
tions of the two orders now ceased, and that the centuries were
regarded as a general national court. There is indeed no
express testimony, but, even though it is not possible to an-
swer for the authenticity of all cases recorded, it is, generally
speaking, a fact well established by the events of history itself,
that until then the accusations made by the tribunes were
brought before the plebes, and those preferred by the quaestors,
before the curies, but afterwards we hear no more of such accu-
sations. Accusations before the tribes as well as before the
curies certainly continue to occur in particular cases, but no
longer in consequence of an opposition between the two
orders.
The change by which the clients became members of the
tribes — a fact which afterwards becomes clear — was probably
made at the same time, for the plebeian tribes, independently
^ In his work De Legibus. — N.
202 JURISDICTION OF THE CENTURIES.
of tlieir import as such, were also to form a general national
division; but though there are some plausible reasons for this
supposition, it is possible also that the change may not have
been introduced till 100 or 120 years later. If Camillus was
condemned by the tribes, wc may perhaps account for it in
this manner; his tribules certainly are mentioned in the trial.
Among the wise laws of the twelve tables which Cicero incor-
porates with his laws, he mentions, with reference to his own
tumultuous condemnation by the tribes, that a judgment de
capite civis could be passed only by the comitiatus maximus. We
certainly cannot assert that previously to the deccmviral legis-
lation, tlie centuries were not authorized to act as a court of
justice: I have discovered a formula whicli must belong to an
earlier period, and probably refers to the centuries as a court
of justice, and the time will probably come when we shall
arrive at a positive conviction on this point. If it was so, we
must suppose that the constitution of the centuries as a court
of justice took place shortly before the deccmviral legislation,
for till then the judicia capitis belonged to the curies and tribes.
The trials of Coriolanus and K. Quinctius did not take place
before the centuries. If in later times we find an instance of a
condemnation by the curies, it must be regarded as an illegal
act of violence. The tribunes accordingly henceforth brought
a crimen capitis before the centuries, and a mere jnulta before
the tribes; it often happens too that the person who is con-
demned goes into exile and loses his franchise. Here we must
bear in mind the principle mentioned by Cicero in his speech
for Caeciua, that exile did not imply the loss of the franchise,
for exile was not a punishment: the loss of the franchise did
not take place until a person was admitted to the citizenship
of a foreign state. From this point of view, we must look at
the condemnation of Camillus, if indeed lie was actually con-
demned by the tribes and not by the curies, for the latter is
far more probable.
In this manner, tlie sphere of the nation as a whole became
greatly extended, and instead of appeals to the two orders
separately, there occur scarcely any appeals except those to the
centuries. The existence of this law sufficiently proves the
mistake of those who believe that the decemvirs assumed all
jurisdiction to themselves; the error arose from the belief, that
as the ancient riglit of appeal to the two estates had been
LEGISLATION OF THE DECEMVIKS. 203
abolished, an appeal was now made from one college to another.
The cases of appeal from the consuls to the people afterwards
occur very rarely, and even those few instances are extremely
problematical; the appeal to the assembled court of the com-
monalty was probably abolished, and according to a natural
development of the constitution, the tribunes, as the direct
representatives of the plcbes, stepped into its place, since
a resolution of the whole commonalty was after all only an
illusion.
Other laws likewise which arc mentioned, must perhaps be
regarded as innovations, as for example that a person who
had pledged himself for debt, should have the same rights as a
free man,
Ever since the battle of lake Eegillus the accounts of Livy
and Dionysius ai'e, in many years, in perfect harmony with
each other, important discrepancies occurring but rarely.
The history of the decemviral legislation also furnishes an
example of this agreement, but other accounts, small as they
are in number, do not agree with them at all; hence their
agreement cannot be quoted as evidence that their state-
ments contain historical truth, but merely leads us to sup-
pose that the two historians by chance made use of the
same sources for this period. The narrative of Livy is
particularly beautiful and elaborate. The statement that a
second set of decemvirs was appointed because two tables
were yet wanting, is foolish; I have already expressed an
opinion that it was probably intended to institute the decem-
virate as a permanent magistracy, to abolish the consulship and
tribuneship, and that the decemvirs of the second year were
elected not as law-givers^ but as the highest magistrates, and
Avith power to add two tables to the ten already draAvn up.
My conjecture, which I here state with tolerable confidence, is
that these decemvirs Avere not elected for one year only, but
for several, perhaps for five: we are told that on the ides of
May they did not lay down their ofl^ce, and this is described
as a usurpation, ilad this been so, it would have been a true
Svvaareia in the genuine Greek sense of the word in which it
is the opposite o? Tvpavvi<i, a distinction unknown in the Latin
language, although not without example in ancient history.*
'' The constitutional history of Elis presents ii true counterpart of that of
Konic. The highest magistrate there was at first appuintcil fur life; even in
204 PRESIDENTS OF THE SENATE.
In electing the decemvirs it must have been intended, as was
the case ever after, that whoever had been invested with this
office should become a member of the senate; but ten new
members every year would have caused too great an increase,
and it seems more easy to suppose that our authors overlooked
the intention that they should hold their office for more than
one year, than that the decemvirs arbitrarily prolonged the
period of their office, a thing which they could not have ven-
tured to do.
In the second year, history shows us the decemvirs in the
possession of all magisterial power; they are said to have kept
a guard of one hundred and twenty lictors {pa^8o(f)6poi),
twelve for each as was the custom of all Greek oligarchs ; these
lictors therefore were to serve a pm-pose different from that of
the consular lictors : they were to be like the cra>fiaTO(f)vXaKe<i of
the Greek tyrants. The decemvirs are described by Livy and
Dionysius as profligate tyrants; but this account must be
received with the same caution as the stories of most tyrants
in antiquity, for the greatest monsters in history did not com-
mit their crimes from a mere love of crime, but generally for
some purpose. Cicero, moreover, relates that although the de-
cemvirs did not behave quite as became citizens, yet one of
them, C. Julius respected the liberties of the people and sum-
moned a popular court to judge one who was not reus manifes-
tus. Appius Claudius and Sp. Oppius were the presidents of
the senate: they administered justice in the city, and were
probably invested with censorial power. Livy very graphically
says that the forum and the curia grew silent, that the senate
was seldom convened and that no comitia were held. This
was quite natural, for as the tribuneship of the people had
been abolished, there was no comitia of the tribes nor any one
to address the people in the forum ; there were no politics to be
discussed, for the constitution was quite new, and in the civil
law, too, nothing further was to be done. The senate was
the Pcloponnesian war the gcntes in Elis were alone sovereign, the surrounding
territory was in a subject condition, and all power was in the hands of a council
of ninety men who were elected for life. The people was divided into three
phylae, and each phylo into thirty gentcs. Afterwards the country population
obtained the franchise. All Elis was divided into twelve regions, and the nation
into twelve tribes, four of which were lost in war, so that there remained only
eight.— N.
GENERAL DISSATISFACTION. 205
rarely convoked, because the college of the decemvirs could do
most things by itself; the patricians, therefore, went into the
country and attended to their estates, many plebeians did the
same, and there suddenly arose in the city a condition of the
most profound peace. But the people had been so much accus-
tomed to excitement that they longed for new commotions; a
feeling of unhappiness came over them, because every thing
which had stirred up their minds had now disappeared all at
once. Whoever like myself, witnessed the period of the
French revolution knows that great mental excitement becomes
in the end as habitual and indispensable to man as gambling,
or any other gratification and excitement of the senses. There
is no feeling more painful than a sudden and perfect peace
after a great revolution, and such a transition often becomes
very dangerous. This was the case in the year 1648, when
the Dutch had concluded peace with the Spaniards at Munster;
contemporary writers relate the state of things which followed
was intolerably tedious, the people became discontented and
gave themselves up to a dissolute life, disputes arose between
King William III. and the city of Amsterdam : any question
however trifling was eagerly taken up in order to have an
opportunity for giving vent to the passions. A similar state
of feeling existed in France immediately after the restoration.
Wherever men's minds are in this condition, ill feeling is
necessarily produced between the government and the people :
such was the case at Rome, and the people were dissatisfied
with their new constitution. Hence even if the decemvirs had
not been bad, or if Appius Claudius had been the only bad
one among them, they could not easily have maintained them-
selves, nor would things have remained quiet. The plebeians
had been disappointed in those members of their order who
had become decemvirs; at first the tribunician protection is
said not to have been missed, but gradually the plebeian de-
cemvirs began to think it proper to use their power for their
own advantage, and to share the esprit du corps of the others.
Thus we can understand how the plebeian Sp.Oppius became
even more odious than the rest, for he, as well as Appius
Claudius, reduced creditors to the state of addicti ; such deeds
had hitherto been done only by patricians.
Under these circumstances, it must have happened very
opportunely for the decemvirs that a war with the Aequians
206 ATPIUS CLAUDIUS.
and Sabines broke out, for they thereby acquired the means of
occupyin<r the people. It is related that the patriots L. Valerius
Potitus and M. Horatius Barbatus came forward in the senate
and demanded that the decemvirs should lay down their power
before an army was enrolled, but that a majority of the senate
resolved upon a levy being made at once. But I consider the
speeches in Livy said to have been delivered on that occasion
to be nothing but empty declamations, promjDted by the idea
that the decemvirs had usurped their power. If those speeches
had been actually delivered, the so called patriots would have
been traitors to tlieir country, for the enemy had invaded and
were devastating the Roman territory ; resistance was necessary,
there was no time for deliberations. Nothing, moreover, would
have been easier than to levy an army, since tribunes no longer
existed. The story of L. Siccius, whom the decemvirs are said
to have caused to be assassinated, has in my opinion little pro-
bability: it looks a great deal too poetical. All we can do is
to keep to the fact that two Roman armies took the field, while
the main army was stationed on Mount Algidus against the
Aequians. In the meantime a crime was committed in the
city, of a kind which was of quite common occurrence in the
Greek oligarchies. Appius Claudius became enamoured of the
daughter of a centurion, L.Virginius. All accounts agree in
saying that her death, like that of Lucretia, was the cause of
the overthrow of the decemvirs; tlie statement is very ancient
and in no way to be doubted: the rape of women and boys is
a crime which was very commonly committed by tyrants
against their subjects; Aristotle and Polybius also expressly
inform us that the overthrow of oligarchies was often the
result of such violation of female virtue. Appius Claudius
suborned a false accuser, one of his own clients, who was
to declare that the real mother of Virginia had been his
slave, and that she had sold the inflxnt to the wife of
Virglnius, who, being herself sterile, wished to deceive her
husband: this assertion, the accuser wanted to establish by
false witnesses; and Appius was resolved to adjudge Virginia
as a slave to his client; but this was contrary to the laws
of the twelve tables, for if the freedom of a Roman citizen
was disputed, he could demand to be left in the enjoyment
of it till the question was decided; only he was obliged to
give security, as a person's value could be estimated in money.
VIRGINIUS — DEATH OF VIRGINIA. 207
This was called vindiciae secundum lihertatem., but Appius
wanted to assign her contra lihertatem. All the people in the
forum then crowded around him entreating him to defer judg-
ment, at least till her father, who was serving in the army,
could return. Wlien the lictor attempted to use force, the
number of plebeians in the forum became so great and formid-
able, that Appius had not courage to abide by his determina-
tion, but requested the accuser to be satisfied with the security
until the next court-day ; but in order to crush the possibility
even of a conspiracy, a court was to be held on the very next
day. At the same time he sent messengers to the camp with
orders that the father should be kept in the army; but
Virginius, whom the betrothed of the maiden and other rela-
tives had previously sent for, appeared on the next morning in
tlie forum. The appearance of justice was now lost: if Appius
allowed the matter to come to a formal investigation, the
father would have unmasked the lie; for this reason Appius
declared his conviction that the maiden was the slave of the
accuser, and ordered her to be led away. The general indio--
nation at this procedure gave Virginius courage, and under
the pretext of taking leave of his daughter and consulting her
nurse, he took her aside into a porticus and plunged into her
breast a knife which he had snatched from one of the stalls
round the forum. The bloody knife in his hands, he quitted
the city without hindrance, and returned to the camp. The
soldiers on hearing what had happened, unanimously refused
obedience to the decemvirs, and both armies united. From
this point our accounts contradict one another; some state
that the soldiers took possession of the Sacred Mount, and, as
in the first secession, of the Aventinc ; but others reverse the
statement. It is to be observed, that the commonalty then
had twenty leaders, and consequently was again under the
protection of its tribunes (phylarchs), who appointed from
among themselves two men who were to act as presidents and
negotiate with the rulers who were abandoned by the people
in the city. The tribuni sacrosancti had been abolished by the
decemviral constitution, but the tribunes as heads of the tribes
had remained; and, headed by these, the plebeians were now
in a more decided state of insurrection against the senate and
the decemvirs than they had been forty years before; at tliat
time they had seceded for the purpose of obtaining certain
208 VICTORY OF THE PLEBEIANS.
riglits, whereas now they were fully armed as for a war. In
this war the decemvirs would necessarily have been over-
powered, especially as it is clear that many of the patricians
also renounced their cause, though, as Livy justly remarks,
most of them loved the decem viral constitution, because it had
delivered them from the tribunician power: but still many of
them, such as Valerius and Horatius, were anxious that the
ancient constitution should be restored, as they were convinced
that the tribuneship acted as a salutary check upon the consu-
lar power. It was accordingly resolved to negotiate with the
plebes, and peace was concluded.
We still possess some remnants of different accounts respect-
ing the fall of the decemvirs : that of Diodorus is quite differ-
ent from the above ; it might be said to be taken from Fabius
if it did not contain one strange circumstance. According to
this account, matters came to a decision much more quickly
than according to Livy, for peace is said to have been con-
cluded on the very next day after the occupation of the
Aventine. According to Cicero, the disruption lasted for a
long time, nor does he know anything of Livy's statement
that Valerius and Horatius were the mediators; he mentions
Valerius afterwards as consul and continually engaged in
reconciling the parties. These are traces of discrepant tradi-
tions, although the character of this period is in general quite
different from that of the preceding one, and truly historical.
According to a statement of Cicero, the plebeians marched
from the Sacred ]\Iount to the Aventine, which is certainly
wrong, for they were always in possession of the Aventine ; it
is moreover probable that the obscure Icilian law referred to the
fact, that the Aventine should be excluded from the union with
Rome, and, as the real seat of the plebeians, should have its own
magistrates. We must therefore suppose the meaning of the
account to be that the army first occupied the Sacred Mount,
and then marched toAvards the city where they united with the
members of their own order on the Aventine. The Capitol
was surrendered to the armed troops, and this surrender shows
most clearly the difference between the present plebeians and
those who had seceded forty years before; the plebeians had
gained a complete victory.
The decemvirs laid down their office, and the first election
was that of ten tribunes which was forthwith held xmder the
OLD CONSTITUTION RESTORED. 209
presidency of the pontifex maximus, which was the strongest
recognition on the part of the patricians; the inviolability of
the plebeian magistrates thus became scciired by the ecclesias-
tical law. It is a highly remarkable anomaly that they held
their concilia in the place afterwards called the Circus Flaminius,
which was to the plebeians what the Circus Maximus was to
the patricians. These things happened in December, and
henceforth the tribunes regularly entered upon their office in
that month. For the purpose of restoring order in the state,
it was resolved that two patrician magistrates should again
be elected, but no longer with the former title of praetors but
with that of consuls, as we are informed by Zonaras.
LECTURE XXVI.
The very fact of the title of praetor being changed into
consul is a proof that the magistracy was looked upon as
something diiFerent from what it had been before : its
dignity had diminished, for praetors are those who go before
or have the command, whereas the word consuls signifies
colleagues merely, and is quite an abstract name like
decemvirs. This new form of the consulship, however, was
not by any means intended as a restoration of the old con-
stitution, or to take the place of the decemvirate, but was
only an extraordinary and transitory measure. As a proof
of this I may mention that the law which declared any one
who did violence to a tribune or aedile an outlaw, was now
extended also to judices and decemvirs. This law has been the
subject of much dispute, but the mention of the decemvirs
in it is well authenticated. Even the great Antonius Au-
gustus, bishop of Taragona, a man very distinguished for
his knowledge of ancient monuments and public law, but
who notwithstanding his great historical talent was unfor-
tunately wanting in grammatical accuracy, saw that the judices
here mentioned were the centum viri, or the judges who were
appointed by the plebeians, three for each tribe, to decide in
all questions about quiritarian property. He mentions this
VOL. I. P
210 VETO OF THE TRIBUNES.
merely in a passing remark; but I have fully proved it in the
new edition of my history. Most people understood these
judices to be the consuls, and therefore concluded that the
consuls were inviolable; it was just as great a mistake to
imasrine that the decemvirs mentioned in the law were the
decemviri stlitihus judicandis, who did not exist till the fifth
century of Rome : the decemvirs are undoubtedly the decemviri
consulari poiestaie, and especially the plebeian ones, the patri-
cians being already sufficiently protected by their ancient laws.
When the tribimeship was restored, the patricians may have
.'i^aid: *' You were right, for the praetors, as they formerly
existed, had too excessive a power, and hence we shared the
decemvirate with you ; but now as you have your tribunes
again, you would acquire an overwhelming power, and you
must therefore leave the decemvirate to us alone." This the
plebeians refused to do ; and this put an end to the discussions
about the restoratioii of the decemvirate ; the consular power
was retained, but with an important change. According to
very authentic accounts, the elective assembly down to the year
A. U. 269 was in possession of a truly free right of election;
but after this time a change was made, first by a usurpation of
the curies, and afterwards by a formal contract that one of the
consuls should be nominated by the senate and sanctioned by
the curies, and that the other should be elected by the centuries.
In this election, the centuries might act with perfect freedom,
as in all their other transactions, which was probably the con-
sequence of the deccm viral legislation ; but the consul elected
by them still reqiiired the sanction of the curies.
The power of the tribunes too was changed in one point.
Before this time all things had been decided in their college by
the majority, but according to Diodorus it now became law
that the opposition of a single tribune could paralyze the whole
college: this opposition was equivalent to an appeal to the
tribes, and was an exemplification of the principle vetanfis
major potcstos. According to Livy this law had existed before ;
but it is probable that it was at least not recognized until now,
when the relation of the tribunes to the commonalty was changed:
they were no longer the deputies, but the representatives
of their order, which was in reality a change for the worse,
though its evil consequences were not felt till several gene-
rations later. Here we again perceive the skill and prudence of
THE CENTURIES — PATRICIAN TRIBUNES. 211
the government, since they might hope always to find one at
least in the college, ready to support their interests. Cicero
says, that the tribuneship saved Rome from a revolution ; if
the people had been refused their tribunes, it would have been
necessary to retain the kings.
The centuries had now obtained jurisdiction; according to
the religious law, the comitia of the centuries had their
auspices, the gods being consulted as to whether that which
was to be brought before the comitia was pleasing to them.
Now as the tribunes had the riojht to brinsf acciTsations before
the centuries, it follows that they must have been entitled to
take the auspices {de coelo ohservare). This is expressed in the
statement of Zonaras, that the tribunes received permission to
consult the auspices. According to a remark in Diodorus, any
person should be outlawed who caused the plebeians to be
without their tribunes. At the close of the year we meet with
the strange circumstance of two patricians being among the
tribunes ; they were either patricians who had gone over to the
plebeians, or the patricians acted upon the principle, which
was perfectly correct, that the tribunes, considering their
power of interfering in the movements of the state, were no
longer the magistrates of a part of the nation, but of the
whole nation. It is expressly attested, that at that time many
patricians went over to the plebeians, but the other explanation
also has great probability. From this time forward patricians
are often mentioned as tribules of the plebeians, and in the
discussions about the separation of the plebcs and their settHng
at Veil, we read that the senators went about prensantes suos
quisque tribules ; and about fifteen years after the time of the
decemvirs, Mamercus Aemilius is said to have been struck out
from the list of his tribe, and to have been placed among the
ae7'arii; Camillus too is stated to have applied to his tribules,
though here, it might be said, we must understand his patri-
cian gentiles. That in the time of Cicero all the patricians
belonged to the tribes, is well known, Caesar belonged to the
tribus Fabia, and Sulpicius to the tribus Lcmonia. After the
Hannibalian war, C. Claudius is made to say by Livy, that to
strike a person from all the thirty-five tribes was the same as
to deprive him of the franchise; and M. Livius removed his
colleague Claudius from his tribe. More examples of the same
kind might easily be accumulated. In the early times, there
p 2
212 DEATH OF APPIUS CLAUDIUS AND SP. OPPIUS.
were both patrician and plebeian tribes, but at a later period
the three patrician tribes of the Ramnes, Titles and Luceres
are no longer spoken of, and they appeared in the centuries
only as the sex suffrogia. The whole Roman nation therefore
was now comprised in the tribes. The same was the case at
Athens, when the ten phylae of the demos became the only
ones, and the four ancient mixed phylae disappeared. I
formerly believed that this was the work of the decemviral
lefxislation : but if we consider the care with which the decem-
virs kept the two orders apart in other respects, we cannot
possibly suppose, that they introduced a fusion in this particular.
We must place the change somewhat later, and the fittest
opportunity seems to be the time of the second censors, so that
the change was made soon after the decemviral legislation.
We read in the fragments of Dion Cassius, that the patricians
preferred the condition of the plebeians to their own, because
they had greater power, and that for this reason they went over
to them. The power indeed of the plebeians at that time was
not greater, but they had greater strength, and it could easily
be foreseen to what, in the course of time, they would attain ;
iriany therefore may have thought it a more agreeable position
to stand in the ranks of those who were advancing, than among
those who were stationary, and could act only on the defensive.
The decemvirs were accused; Appius Claudius and Sp.
Oppius died in prison. The latter was a plebeian, a proof
that the plebeians must not be regarded as persons possessed
of peculiar virtues. Wherever a state is divided into factions
and the ruling party abuses its power, our sympathies go with
the weaker party. Sp. Oppius was perhaps one of those who
had before been very loud in his denunciations against tyranny,
but afterwards became a tyrant himself. L. Virginius, Avho
had been appointed tribune to avenge the blood of his daughter,
brought a capital charge against Appius*, and by virtue of his
tribunician power ordered him to be thrown into prison.
Livy's account here leads us to a curious point. It is a very
general opinion that every Roman citizen had the right to
escape from a sentence of death by going into exile. If this
had been the case, we might wonder why the punishment of
' A.Vir<,'inins in Livy is iirol)iibh' n niist.ikcof a copyist wlio was tliinkingof
the earlier trilninc of fliis Tiamc. — N.
THE ROMAN CKIMINAL LAW. 213
death was instituted at all, and yet the ancient Roman laws
were not sparing of it ; but the fact is different : the views of
the ancients in regard to criminal law differ from ours almost
more than in regard to any other subject. According to our
notions a criminal must be tried, even if he has been caught
in the act; we consider it almost a duty on his part to deny
his crime, and he must be convicted by evidence ; advocates
may defend him and attempt to misguide the covirt. Of such
a mode of proceeding the ancients had no idea: when a person
had committed a crime, the statement of witnesses was suffici-
ent to cause him to be forthwith apprehended and dragged
before a magistrate: if the crime was not a delictum manifestum,
the offender, if a plebeian, might call for the assistance of a
tribune and give security; if after this he was set free, he
might sacrifice his sureties and go into exile. But if he had
been caught in a delictum manifestum in flagranti, and the testes
locupletes declared that they were present and bore witness to
his identity, no trial took place: the criminal was dragged
obtorto collo, the toga being drawn over his head, before the
magistrate, who forthwith pronounced sentence. If the day
on which the criminal was caught, was not a court-day, he was
taken to prison until the next court-day. If, on the other
hand, a person committed a capital offence of such a kind that
catching him in flagranti was impossible, nevertheless the
accuser had the means of obtaining the imprisonment of the
culprit.^ Appius Claudius, for example, was gviilty of a capital
offence: he had deprived a citizen of his liberty, and Virginias
accused him without allowing him to give security, in order
that he might not escape ; in such a case the accuser might
offer to the defendant a sponsio a kind of wager, consisting of
a sum of money (sacramenjum) on the part of the accuser
against the personal liberty of the defendant. The accuser
said : You have deprived a citizen of his liberty ; the accused
denied the charge, and if the judex chosen for the case declared
for the accuser, no further trial was necessary; the criminal
was forthwith led before the magistrate, and executed; if
however the judex decided against the accuser, the latter lost
the sacramentum. If the accused declined to accept the sponsio,
he was thrown into prison. The question now is, whether in
such a case as this the accuser was obliged to drop his suit or
"^ On this subject comp. Hist, of Rome. vol. ii. p. 370, ibl.— Ed.
214 THE ROMAN CRIMINAL LAW.
to accept the security. The passages which decide this question,
occur in Livy and Cicero. The accused remained in prison
only till the next court-day, and thus the smallness of the
prison at Komo becomes intelligible ; confinement in its dark-
ness was of itself a forerunner of death, and he who was thrown
into it was lost. Cicero says: carcerem vindicem nefariorum
ac manifest or um scelerum majores esse voluerunt ; the criminal
either had his neck broken in the prison, or was led out to be
executed. The Greek customs connected with imprisonment
are much more like those of our own times. I may here add
the remark, that wdien an accusation was brought against a
filius familias, the fatlier acted as judge; if against a client, the
patron.
Another part of the Koman criminal law entirely different
from our own, was that relating to offences against the state.
For many of them no punishment was fixed, it being a dis-
tinct maxim with the ancients, that the state must preserve
itself — salus publica svprema lex esto. They well knew that
the individual crimes against the state admitted of the greatest
variety of shades, that the same external act might arise either
from error or from the most criminal intention, and that ac-
cordingly it was impossible to fix a special punishment for
each particular case. Hence both Greeks and Romans in all
judicia publica granted to the accused himself the extraordinary
privilege of proposing any definite punishment such as he
thought proportioned to the nature of his offence, and that
even in cases for which there already existed a precedent.
The same privilege seems to have been transferred even to
judicia privata, in those cases for which no provision was
made in the criminal code. In modern times the foolish
notion has been established, that a punishment should be in-
flicted only according to a positive laW; and this sad mistake
is adojDtcd every where. The ancients followed the directly
opposite principle: a boy who tortured an animal, was sen-
tenced to death by the Athenian popular assembly, although
there was no law for the protection of animals ; it was on the
same principle that a person who was only guilty of an act
repulsive to the common feeling of honour, was condemned
to die.
Up to this time the patricians seem to have claimed for
themselves the privilege which exempted them from being
SECOND PUBLILIAN LAW. 215
thrown into prison ; for it is related that Appius called the
carcei' the domicile of the plebeians. Virginius showed him-
self generous in granting to Appius time to make away with
himself But Sp. Oppius was executed, becaiise his crime was
of a different kind and not one against an individual who
might be lenient towards him ; for the story that he ordered
an old soldier who had served for twenty-seven years to be
scourged, and that this man came forward as his accuser, is
evidently a fiction. The period of a soldier's actual service
lasted twenty-eight years, and the introduction in this story of
one who was in the last year of his military service, is evidently
a representation of tyranny in general. The other decemvirs
went into voluntary exile, and their property was confiscated.
One of them was Q. Fabius, the ancestor of the subsequent
gens Fabia. After these events, the tribune M. Duilius pro-
nounced an amnesty for all who had been guilty of any oflence
during the preceding unhappy period. This precedent is of
great importance in the history of judicial proceedings among
Sie Romans. I had distinctly expressed my opinion upon
these proceedings long before the discovery of Gains, when the
most absurd notions were current about the Roman criminal
law ; but the fragments of Gains and the labours of Savigny
have made everything much clearer.
At first the patricians had been in great consternation, and
sanctioned all the laws which were proposed. Among them
was one which gave to plehiscita the power of laws binding
upon all, ut quod tributim plebes jussisset popidum tmeret. This
law is one of the greatest mysteries in Roman history, and
there is no possibility of giving an absolute historical solution
of the difiiculty, though I have formed a hypothesis respect-
ing it, of the truth of which I am convinced. The law as
stated above is recorded by Livy, who afterwards, in his
eighth book, says of the second Publilian law ut plebiscita
omnes Quirites tenerent ; and in the same terms Pliny and
Laelius Felix (in Gellius) quote the law of Hortensius which
falls 160 years later, and of which Gaius says: ut plebiscita
populum tenerent. Now on considering these three laws (the
Pubhlian is mentioned only by Livy), they seem to enact the
same thing; but is this really the case? was the law twice re-
newed because it had fallen into oblivion? If we examine the
character of these laws in reference to the various times to
216 LEX VALERIA HORATIA.
Avhich thoy belong, it will be seen that their meaning was dif-
ferent, and tliat the force of plebiscita was not interpreted
always in the same manner. The result of my investigations is,
that Livy, in mentioning the lex Valeria Horatia, was not
accurate, because he himself did not see clearly, and because
he was thinking of the well-known Hortensian law. The law
probably ran thus: quae plebes tributim jusserit, QUARUM
RERUM PATRES AUCTORES FACT! 8INT, ut populum teneanf,
for from this time forward the legislative proceedings are
often described as follows: when the tribunes had got the
commonalty to pass a resolution, they then brought it before
the curies, which forthwith voted upon it; this was an abbre-
viation of the ordinary mode of proceeding, according to
wliich legislative proposals, after being sanctioned by the
senate, were first brought before the centuries and then before
the curies ; according to the new arrangement, the consultation
of the senate and the passing through the centuries were abol-
ished. The change was very important; for now the discus-
sion of a matter might originate with the plebes themselves.
It is clear, on the other hand, that without the sanction of the
curies the plebiscita had not the power of laws, as we see more
especially during the contest about the Licinian laws; resolu-
tions of the plebes may at that time have been termed kffes,
merely because they became leges as soon as they obtained the
consent of the curies. In cases when the plebes and the curies
were not divided by party interests, every thing was sanctioned
by the latter. It must further be observed that this law was
carried not by a tribunician, but by a consular rogation. The
Publilian law had been rendered superfluous by the decemviral
legislation, which did not recognise any comitia tributa.
The later Publilian law of the dictator Q. Publilius Philo
has quite a difiercnt meaning; for it dispensed with the assent
of the curies to a resolution passed by the tribes, because it
was too tedious a proceeding, and the senate after all had the
right of proposal. His law ut plebiscita omnem populum teneatit,
should in all probability run ut plebiscita QUAE SENATU
AUCTORE FACTA SI NT om7ies QuiHtes TENEANT, for from
this time it is often mentioned in regard to matters affecting
the administration, tliat the senate commissioned the consuls
to negociate with tlic tribunes to bring proposals before the
tribes; but this occui*s only in matters connected with the ad-
THE HORTENSIAN LAW. 217
ministration (y^rrj^la^ara), for example, that a person should
be invested with an extraordinary imperium, and not in legis-
lative matters {voixol). This shortening of the proceedings was
useful : for religious reasons, the curies and centuries could be
assembled only on certain days, whereas the tribes might and
did assemble every day, not being restricted by the dies nefasti.
It became more and more evident, that general assemblies were
a mere formality and depended too much upon accidental cir-
cumstances: the supposed personal opinion in voting is onlv
imaginary; impulse and example do everything. It also be-
came every day more evident that the more the state increased
the greater became the want of a regular government; it was
accordingly of importance to the Romans to devise forms for
preventing arbitrary proceedings on the part of the govern-
ment and for preserving publicity. In this respect the Romans
differed especially from the Greeks, inasmuch as they com-
mitted themselves with confidence to the personal guidance of
individuals, which never occurred at Athens.
Lastly, the Hortensian law has a meaning quite different
from the preceding laws : it introduced a true democracy, by
enacting that in the case of legislative measures (for in regard
to administrative measures the second Publilian law remained
in force) a preliminary resolution of the senate should be un-
necessaiy, and that the plebes should have power to pass any
resolution; the curies were at the same time deprived of their
functions. This was a decisive victory of the democracy.
Administrative measures were resolutions on particular emer-
gencies; and nothing of this kind could be brought before the
plebes, even down to the end of the sixth century (a.U. 570),
which had not previously been determined on by the senate;
but for real laws a resolution of the plebes was sufficient. The
ancient burghers thereby lost their power of regeneration, the
balance was destroyed, and the scale sank on the side of demo-
cracy. The curies had been compelled even by the Publilian
law, in the year A.u. 417, previously to the meeting of the
centuries, to declare by a certain formula that they sanctioned
whatever should be determined upon. It was a misfortune for
the state that the curies had no means of regeneration : so long
indeed as resolutions had to pass the centuries, it was not of
much consequence, but the Hortensian law, which conferred
all power upon the tribes alone, destroyed the salutary rela-
218 VICTORY OF THE AEQUIANS AND 8AB1NES.
tion8 wliicli had hitherto existed, and all the equipoise in the
state.
In the first stage, these plebiscita were mere resolutions not
aiFecting the state, but relating to such subjects as, for instance,
the burial of an important person, the poll-tax, and the like;
in the second, the plebes by virtue of the first Publilian law
declared themselves authorized to draw up resolutions on
general subjects, which however had to be taken into consider-
ation by the consul, to be laid before the senate, and then to
pass through the centuries and curies; in the third stage, after
the Valerian law, a plebiscitum had the force of law as much
as a resolution of the centuries, and was immediately brought
before the curies and sanctioned by them. In the fourth, the
later Publilian law rendered a plebiscitum a sufficient sanction
of a resolution passed by the senate, which in urgent circum-
stances, when it was impossible to wait for the next dies corni-
tialis, was communicated by the consul to the tribunes. It was
sufficient if the tribunes announced a concilium ; the dies nefasli
affijcted only curule magistrates and the jmptdus. If for exam-
ple, at the end of a year an army was in the field, the senate
would have been obliged to send its resolution to the centuries
and then to have it sanctioned by the curies; but the shorter
way now adopted was that the consuls were commissioned, nt
cum tribunis plebis agerent quam primum fieri posset ad plebem
ferrent. This does not occur previously to the Publilian law.
The Hortensian law lastly, in the fifth stage, authorised the
plebes to act as an independent legislative assembly.
The consuls now took the field against the Aequians and
Sabincs, and returned after a brilliant victory, and having
probably also established a lasting peace with the Sabincs. In
the meantime the patricians had acquired fresh coura'-'e, and
those men of their own order, who during the confiision had
honestly wished to do their best, now became the objects of
their hatred, and accordingly the senate refused the triumph
to the returning consuls. This is the first occasion on which
we sec the overwhelming power of the tribunes, for they inter-
fered and granted the triumph on their own responsibility;
their right to do so may be much doubted; but the consids
accepted the triumph, and if they had been disturbed, the tri-
bunes would have assisted them. This occurrence shows how
great the exasperation must have been even at that early period ;
THE DIFFERENT QUAESTORS. 219
in the year following it rose to such a height, that, as Livy
says, the heads of the patricians met and discussed the plan of
getting rid of their opponents by a general massacre, but this
senseless scheme, for which they would have had to pay dearly,
w^as not carried into effect.
The events which now occurred are very obscure, for the
piety of posterity has thrown a veil over them. The people
had got out of the painful stillness which followed the time of
the decemvirate, but the constitution w^as yet far from having
found its level, and there were disputes as to who was to govern.
The plebeians demanded that either the consulship should be
divided between the two estates, or that the decemviral form
of government should be restored. In the following year, the
patricians shewed somewhat more willingness to make conces-
sions : the quaestores parricidii, hitherto a patrician magistracy,
were for the first time elected by the centuries ; Valerius and
Horatius, the consuls of the preceding year, were elected,
which assuredly was not a mere accident. Many of the ancients,
as Tacitus, Plutarch, and even Ulpian, aro in error in regard
to these quaestores, but Gains is right. There were two kinds
of quaestores, the quaestores parricidii^ who brought accusations
of offenders against the state before the curies, and the six
quaestores classici who in books on Roman antiquities are inva-
riably confounded with the former. Tacitus says of the latter
what can apply only to the former: " The quaestors," says he,
" were at first elected by the kings, and afterwards by the con-
suls, as is clear from a lex curiata of Brutus.^^ But Tacitus
cannot have seen this lex, for the quaestores parricidii are
synonymous with the decemviri perduellionis, and the latter
were always elected by the curies, or rather by the Ramnes and
Tities which they represented. It is indeed impossible that
Poplicola caused the quaestores classici, or paymasters, also to
be elected; but the two who had been formerly elected by the
curies, and who sixty-three years after the banishment of the
kings (according to Tacitus), that is, in the second year after
the overthrow of the decemvirs, were elected by the centuries,
are the ancient quaestores parricidii, whose office continued
until it was merfjed in that of the curule aediles. Nine tribunes
hereupon made the proposal to leave the censorship and quaes-
torship to the patricians, and either to share the consulship, or
to institute military tribunes with consular power : only one of
220 THE (JANULEIAN LAW.
their colleagues was of a different opinion. It is not impossi-
ble tliat the stoiy of nine tribunes having once been sentenced
by the populus to be burnt at the stake, and of one traitor,
P. Mucius, having carried the sentence into execution, may
refer to this time.^ In this case the populus means the curiae,
which again usurped the power of passing such a sentence.
Among these nine tribunes there was probably a son or grand-
son of Sp. Cassius, who had renounced his own order, and
perished in the attempt to avenge his father or grand-
father.
It was generally wished that the consuls and tribunes should
be re-elected, but the consuls refused; and Duilius, who had
been chosen to represent his colleagues, likewise refused to
accept any votes for the tribuneship. This had evil conse-
quences, and a division arose: the tribunes who wished to
remain in office, probably had sufficient influence with their
friends and followers to cause them to abstain from voting, so
that only five tribunes were elected, who had to add five to
their number. It is said that they also chose two patricians,
which is an argument in favour of our assertion, that not long-
after the decemviral legislation, the importance of the tribes
was doubled, inasmuch as they became a general national
division.
A remarkable change which belongs to this period, is the
abolition of the law forbidding the connubium between tlie
patricians and the plebeians. This, as Ave know, had been an
established custom from the earliest times, and had been incor-
porated in the laws of the twelve tables. Such a practice is
usually not repulsive until it is written down among the laws;
and thus, in this instance too, was raised the storm which
occasioned the plebiscitum of Canuleius. This is generally
regarded as the great victory of the plebeians ; for the patri-
cians, it is said, at last gave way, but reserved to themselves
other rights. Livy looks upon it as a degradation of the
ruling order. I will not quarrel with him for saying so, but
if we look at the matter in its true light, it is evident that the
existence of such a law injured none more than the patricians
themselves. Mixed marriages between persons of the two
estates had undoubtedly been frequent at all times, and as far
as conscience was concerned they were perfectly legitimate.
' Hec above, p. 193.
MILITARY TRIBUNES. 221
The son of such a marriage never had the jus ffentilicium, but
was numbered among the plebeians, the consequence of which
was, that the patrician order became continually less and
less numerous. It is an acknowledged fact, that wherever
the nobles insist upon marrying none but members of their
own order, they become in course of time quite powerless.
M. Eehbcrg mentions, that within fifty years one-third of the
baronial families of the duchy of Bremen became extinct, and
any body who wished to be regarded as equal to the rest had
to shew sixteen ancestors. If the plebeians had wished to
outwit the patricians, they certainly ought to have insisted
upon the connubium remaining forbidden; and but for the
Canuleian law, the patricians would have lost their position
in the state one hundred years earlier. The law was passed,
but whether it was in favour of the patricians or of the
plebeians we know not. About such things we cannot speak
with any probability, for even what appears absurd has some-
times really happened.
Afterwards, we once find three military tribunes instead of
the consuls; and Dionysius on that occasion says, that it was
determined to satisfy the plebeians by appointing military
tribunes, three of whom were to be patricians, and three ple-
beians. But there were only three, and one of them was a
plebeian. Livy foolishly considers all three to have been
patricians. He thinks that the plebeians only wanted to have
the right, but that having gained this they considered them-
selves unworthy of the oflice, and elected patricians. He
speaks of the plebeians as if they had been unspeakably
stupid, thus displaying the confusion of a man, who with all
his genius, is yet in reality only a rhetorician, and proving
that he was as little acquainted with the political affairs of
Rome, as with the regulation of her armies. The probability
is, that an agreement was made to give up the name of consul
altogether, since the two orders were no longer separate, and
to leave the election entirely free between them ; but that,
nevertheless, all kinds of artifices were resorted to, that the
elections might turn out in favour of the patricians. In the
early time, the clients of the patricians were not contained in
the tribes. They, like their patrons, used to be sent away
from the forum when the plebeians proceeded to vote, and
wbocver was not a member of a tribe, was either not contained
222 MILITARY TRIBUNESHIP.
in the centuries at all, or voted in tliem only with the artisans
and capite censi. But from this time forward there is no
mention of anything in which the plebes and clients appear as
opposed to each other, and this ought to convince us how
authentic our accounts arc, and how little they partake of the
nature of fables. Is it possible that a late falsifier of history,
who lived in the seventh century, should have been able so
accurately to separate legal relations? Such a man is always
deficient in learning, and even a learned man would have
blundered here. The clients henceforth appear in the tribes,
and consequently also in the centuries. This we know, partly
from express testimony, and partly fi'om the circumstances
themselves. The discussions of the plebeians now assume
quite a difierent character; they lose all their vehemence, and
the contest between two opposed masses ceases .all at once.
The rejection of plebeians at elections, and the like, no longer
arose from any external opposition, but from the internal
dissensions of the plebeians themselves. Formerly the college
of the tribunes was always unanimous, while henceforth it is
frequently divided, some of its members being gained over to
the interests of the senate, and motions wliich used to be
brought forward by the whole college, are now made by single
tribunes. These are proofs that the fusion of the two estates
had been accomplished.
LECTURE XXVII.
The military tribuneship had been regarded as a kind of
compromise. Among the first three, Livy mentions L. Atilius
Longus and T. Caecilius.^ Instead of the latter, Dionysius,
in the eleventh book, has Cloelius ; but nothing can be
decided, since the readings in the eleventh book are all of a
very recent date. If Caecilius is the correct name, there
were two plebeians among them ; and this would account for
the vehemence with which the patricians insisted upon abolish-
ing the military tribuncsliips.
' In some modem editions of Livj-, \vc read Cloelins instead of Caecilius, but
this is an emendation : the MSS. of Dionysius have KKvaiov. — Ed.
THE CENSORSHIP. 223
I believe that the censorship was instituted in the same
year, A.U.311, as the military tribuneships ; and both there-
fore must have arisen from a common cause, a fact which
Livy overlooks; and the circumstance of the first censors not
being found in the Fasti, nor in the libri magistratuum, but
only in one of the libri lintei, and that as consuls, is accounted
for by the fact, that the censors were already elected in accord-
ance with the laws of the twelve tables; and that when the
patricians carried their point by violent commotion, the cen-
sors, of whom we have only one trace, were neither consuls nor
military tribunes, but performed consular functions, and there-
fore took part in concluding the treaty with the Ardeatans.
Livy could not explain this, nor could Macer make anything
of it. It is strange to read in Livy, that the military tribunes
were obliged to abdicate, because the tabernaculum had been
vitio captum, and that T. Quinctius, as interrex (more probably
as dictator), elected the two consuls, L. Papirius Mugillanus
and L. Sempronius Atratinus, who, however, were not to be
found in the Fasti; and yet he relates the affair as quite cer-
tain. It is still more surprising, that the year after he says of
these first censors, that they were elected censors for the pur-
pose of indemnifying those quorum de consulatu dubitabaiur, ut
€0 magistratu parum solidum mogistratum explerent, as if in the
year A.u. 312 there could have been any doubt as to what had
happened in 31 L Livy is here guilty of the same thought-
lessness as when, in the history of the second Funic war, he
confounds one Heracleitus, a Macedonian ambassador, with
the celebrated philosopher Heracleitus.
Now as regards the nature of the military tribunes, it must
be avowed that this magistracy is very obscure to us.- Livy
says of them eos juribus et insignibus consularibus usos esse, and
they are also called tribuni militares consulari potestate ; but
Dion Cassius, that acute observer, who at one time himself
occupied the curule chair, states that the military tribunes were
inferior to the consuls, that none of them ever obtained a
triumph, although many had done things deserving of one.
This perfectly agrees with history; we further find that a
consul was never appointed mogister eguifum, while military
- The repetitions which occur here and elsewhere arise from the fact, that the
discussion was interrupted at the close of the hour, and was taken up again at
the bc'^inninj? of the next Lecture. — Ed.
224 ELECTION OF MILITARY TRIBUNES.
tribunes were sometimes invested with that office. This
seems to show that the military tribunes were not curule
magistrates, that is according to Gellius' explanation, not such
magistrates as were allowed to ride in a chariot (as Juno curulis,
whose image was carried on a chariot); the consuls rode in
chariots to the curia; the full triumph was called triumphns
cwulis, according to the monumentum Ancyranum, where the
number of the triumphi curules of Augustus are mentioned;
the ovatio was different from such a triumph. ^ It seems,
moreover, that the military tribunes never had any jurisdic-
tion ; but it was originally possessed by the censors and after-
wards by the praefectus urbi, who probably also presided in the
senate. This latter magistracj'-, too, had been abolished by the
decemviral legislation, but now appears again. The consular
power was thus weakened, just as was done afterwards when
the Licinian law was carried: for when the consulship was
divided between the patricians and plebeians, the praetorship
was detached from it and constituted as a separate magistracy.
It thus becomes intelligible why the plebeians preferred the
election of military tribunes, even though they were not taken
from their order, for the power of those magistrates was in-
ferior to that of the consuls. According to Livy's account, it
was always the senate which determined whether consuls or
military tribunes should be elected ; but it is more probable
that this question was decided by the curies ; confusion here
may have arisen from the ambiguity of the word patres. The
military tribuneship, however, presents surprising changes in
number, for sometimes, though rarely, we find three, more
frequently four, but from the year A.u. 347 or a.u. 348 regu-
larly six, wherever they are mentioned, and in one year eight,
the two censors being included. When there are four, one of
them usually is the praefectus urbi, so that in reality there are
only three. The right of the plebeians to be elected military
tribunes was never disputed, but after the first election it Avas
' It is a mysterious statement ^vhicll occurs in Livy and elsewhere, that a
special law was passed for a dictator, ut ei cguum esrcmlcre liceret. This is ex-
plained by saying that a dictator was not untitled to appeal- on horseback,
whereas the magister equitum did possess this pri^•ilcg•c. It is possible that the
dictator was not only entitled to use a chariot, but tliat ho was not allowed to
ajipear otlierwisc than in a cliariot, especially on his return from battle. An al-
lusion to this is contained in a verse in Van-o: Dictator ubi currum insedit
vehitur usque ad oppldum. Oppidum aicordinjj; to Varrois the city wall (also a
jtlacc surrounded with a wail, in opposition to pagus and vicus). — N.
PLEBEIAN TRIBUNES. 225
nearly always frustrated, though by what means is incompre-
hensible, for Livy's account, which I have already mentioned,
is foolish. It is possible indeed that an arrangement was
made, and that the patricians said: "We grant the institution
of a weaker magistracy, but then they must be elected from
among our body exclusively;" or that it was in ancient times
a privilege of the presiding magistrate not to accept any votes
{iiomina non accipere) which for various reasons could be re-
jected; or it may be that when six military tribunes vrere
elected, the curies conferred the impcrium only upon the patri-
cians, and refused it to the plebeians. But on this last suppo-
sition, it is inconceivable how the plebeians should have ac-
quiesced in it. AVe are here unfortunately without the gui-
dance of Dionysius, who though he did not comprehend the
relations, yet gave faithfully what he found in his authorities :
if we had his account, the whole period would undoubtedly
be much clearer to us. Bvit we are confined to Livv, and on
many points we cannot hope to obtain any certain information.
After the last change, when the number of miHtary tribunes
became regularly six, we repeatedly find a majority of plebeians
among them, and the regulation evidently was, that the num-
ber six should always be complete, and that they should be
chosen without distinction from both orders. There is every
appearance, that when this change was introduced, the election
was transferred from the centuries to the tribes. Everything
therefore depended upon the honesty of the president, and
upon his accepting the votes or not. The sad policy by which
Italy became great in the fifteenth and sixteenth centvu"ies, now
appears in Roman history, especially in the divisions of the
college of tribunes; and this is, to some extent, the reason
why the development of Rome Avas for a time compromised.
A period in which successful wars are carried on, as was the
case w^ith Rome from this time down to the Gallic calamity,
is extremely well calculated to make the subjects of a state
submit to things which they would not otherwise tolerate.
The name of the Roman republic w^as surrounded with glory,
great conquests and much booty were made, the plebeians as
well as the patricians felt comfortable, and although the rulers
were not popular, yet things w^ere allowed to go on as they
were. Rome thus recovered from the decline into which she
had Slink ever since the rerj'ifncjivm . The grant of the connu-
A'OL. I. Q
226 THE CENSORSHir.
bium between the two orders also must have exercised a mighty
influence: the families became more closely connected and
attached to one another; a patrician born of a plebeian
mother when sitting in the senate stood on a footing of equality
with the plebeians, and perhaps did many a thing to please
them. The number of plebeians in the senate may not have
been very great, but the mere fact of their being there, even
without influence, was agreeable to the whole body of
plebeians.
The censorship being a permanent magistracy, and appa-
rently the highest, had a lustre which far surpassed that of the
military tribuneship. If we suppose that it was instituted by
the twelve tables, it becomes clear why Cicero, in his work De
Legihus, represents the censors as the first magistracy; he
probably copied it from the twelve tables, and only omitted a
few things; for in the twelve tables they had still more attributes.
In the earlier times the consuls are said to have performed the
functions of the censors, and this is very probable, considering
the almost regal power of the" consuls; but it is surprising how
they can have discharged their enormous duties. The Greek
states of Sicily and Italy, likewise had their TtfjiTjTai (Athens
had none), but in no part of Greece were their powers as
extensive as at Eome. According to the Koman law, the
censors had to conduct the census, and to determine a person's
status in society. Accurate lists were kept of the property,
births and deaths of the citizens, as well as of those who
were admitted to the franchise. But we must distinguish
between two kinds of lists. One class consisted of lists of
persons arranged according to names. Q. Mucins, for example,
was registered under the tribus Romilia with his name, his
whole family, and his taxable property. His sons, who had
the to(/a virilis, probably had a caput of their own. The
other lists were of a topographical kind, and contained a tabu-
lar view of landed estates according to the different regions,
e. g. the tribus Romilia in all its parts. The ancients, in
general, had much more writing than is commonly imagined ;
all was done with a minuteness which was part of their poli-
tical forms. I once saw in London the registers of an Indian
province — of course in a translation, for I do not understand
one word of the Indian language — which were drawn up with
a miniiteness of which we can scarcely form an idea. The
DUTIES OF THE CENSORS. 227
same was the case with the ancients. The registers of pro-
perty at Athens were very minute, and so also even in later
times were the Roman contracts before the curiae. The divi-
sion of the jugei'a was very accurately recorded in the lists of
the Roman censors; the caput of each individual contained his
descent, tribe, rank, property, etc. The censors at the same
time had the right of transferring persons, for the purpose
both of honouring and of disgracinof them: but what were
the offences which the censors punished wdth ignominy
{ignominia is the real expression)? Every one at Rome was
expected to answer the definition of his status. A plebeian
was necessarily a husbandman, either a lauded proprietor or a
free labourer. This is established by positive testimony, and
still more in a negative way, for no one could be a plebeian
who was engaged in craft or a trade. Wlioever so employed
himself was struck from the list of his tribe, which accordingly
was not so ranch a personal ignominia, as a declaration that a
person had passed over from one side to the other. But who-
ever neglected his farm, was likewise struck out from his
tribe, i. e- it was declared that he was de facto not a husband-
man. An eques who kept his horse badly was similarly
treated, and this was the notatio censoi^ia, by which a person
was degraded to the rank of an aerarius, being considered
unworthy to hold his property. An aerarius, on the other
hand, who distinguished himself, and acquired landed pro-
perty, was honoured by being registered among the plebeians ;
and a plebeian who distinguished himself was entered in the
centuries of the plebeian equites. But the censors certainly
could not raise strangers to the rank of citizens; for this was
a point concerning which there were established laws, or else
the assembly of the people conferred the franchise by an extra-
ordinary act. A state whose varying elements present great
differences, where the plebes does not form a close body but
may complete itself, and contains the aristocratic elements of
plebeian equites who are not restricted by the census, must
necessarily have some magistrate for the purpose of assigning
to every individual his rank; for such an honorary class ot
men as the equites could not be close or immutable, just
because it was an honorary class. We may say that the
power of deciding respecting it might have been left to the
people; but this would not only have been tedious but also
Q2
228 LEX OVINIA TRIBUNICIA.
perverse, since it might be presumed that the censorSj who
were chosen from among the most distinguished men, and had
to bear all the responsibility — one of them having even
power to oppose the acts of his colleague — would act much
more fairly and justly, than if the whole people had been
called upon to decide. The proper filling up of vacancies
in the senate also required a careful superintendence. It was
originally an assembly of the gentes, in which each gens was
represented by its senator: but when gentes became extinct,
three hundred were taken from the whole body of burghers,
one hundred from each tribe, so that as gentes became extinct,
one gens might have several representatives, while another
might become altogether incapable or unworthy of being
represented. At a later time the lex Ovinia trihunicia* inter-
fered, in which it was declared, that out of the whole body
of the burghers, the wortliicst should be taken without any
regard to the gentes. If this law belongs to the first period of
the censorship, it shews that at that time the senate still con-
sisted of patricians only, and that the worthiest were taken
from all the three tribes. Tlie account that even Brutus or
Valerius Poplicola introduced plebeians into the senate under
the name of conscripti, is a mere fable, or must be regarded
only as a transitory arrangement. About the time of the
secession of the commonalty there cannot have been a single
plebeian in the senate, and their existence there cannot be
proved till the middle of the fourth century. The senate now
became a body of men elected by the people, as the magistrates
obtained the privilege of voting in the senate, and the right of
being elected into it, when the new list was made up. This
right extended even to the quaestors. The throwing open of
the quaestorship to both orders in the year a.U. 346, appears
to me to have been the first occasion on which the plebeians
were admitted into the senate ; and Avhen afterwards eight
quaestors were appointed every 3^ear, the arbitrary power of
the censors necessarily ceased. They could, indeed, exclude
plebeians, but the senate consisted of only three hundred mem-
bers; and as the censors at the close of each lustrum always
had before them forty men with claims to a seat in the senate,
it is obvious that the senate might soon become a plebeian
rather than a patrician assembly. The power of the censors,
* Festus, s. Y. praetcriti senaiorex. Comp. Hist. Rome, vol. i. note 1 163. — Eu.
4
POWERS OF TUE CENSORS. 229
therefore, like that of all the other magistrates, except the
tribunes, decreased in the course of time. Formerly only a
censor could sto|) the proceedings of his colleague, but after-
wards the tribunes also presumed to interfere with the decrees
of the censors. It was at one time believed to be impossible
that the censor should have had the powers which were given
them by the Ovinian law; or if such were the fact, that their
powers were excessive. Originally, however, they actually
had great arbitrary power; but as afterwards the two orders
were no longer exclusively opposed to each other, but the
government and the people, the latter limited the power of
the former, and the censors too lost a part of theirs. The
censorial power did not affect the patricians, for their books
were closed ; and according to the notions of those times about
the auspices, no person cotild become a patrician not even by
adoption, though afterwards cases certainly do occur.
The question now is : Were the censors allowed to exercise
their power in regard also to the moral conduct of citizens?
Could they mark a bad man with a nota censoria ? I formerly
answered these questions in the negative, excepting perhaps
cases of decided villany ; but in the recently discovered
excerpts from Dionysius there is a passage, in which he
manifestly speaks of the power of the censors to brand every
moral baseness which could not be reached by the law, such
as disaffection towards parents, between husband and wife,
between parents and children, harshness towards slaves and
neighbours. In the time of Dionysius, it is true, the ancient
character of the censorship was no longer visible; but this
is the very reason why we must suppose, that in describing
the censorship he represented it such as it had been in past
ages, rather than as it was in his own time, which was known
to every one. It is therefore probable that the censorial
power actually had that great extent of which, by our exist-
ing materials, we can still fix the limits. The censorship
of Gellius and Lentulus in the time of Cicero was an irregu-
larity^. Wiiether some tribes were minus honestae, and others
honesiiores, as early as the period we are now speaking about,
cannot be determined; but in regard to later times, it is
acknowledged that the tribus urhanae, and especially the
Esquilina, were despised^ while the Crustumina stood higher;
* Cie. />. Clucnt. c. 42 ; Ascon. in Orat. in Tog. Cand. p. 84. Oiclli. — Ed.
230 FAMINE AT ROME.
but it would be quite absurd to suppose the same tiling for the
earlier times.
The censors were at first elected for a lustrum, or a period of
five years ; and this seems to have been the period intended
by the decemviral legislation for all magistrates, according to
the whole character of that legislation, the principle of which
was to apply cooling remedies against the political fever, elec-
tions being always most powerful in stirring up the passions.
Whether Mam. Aemilius actually limited the censorial power
to eighteen months, and was therefore branded with ignominy
by his successors, or whether this is merely a tale which was
contained in the books of the censors and intended to trace an
existing law back to some individual, cannot be determined;
thouo-h it is certain that there existed such books of the censors.
LECTURE XXVIII.
In the year A.U. 315, a fearful famine broke out at Rome;
many citizens threw themselves into the Tiber to escape from
death by starvation. The prices of corn then were in general
as fluctuating as in the middle ages, which gave rise to much
-speculation and hoarding up of grain, especially as in Italy corn
can be kept for a long time under ground. The calamity came
on unexpectedly; the prae/ectura annonae was then instituted,
which seems to have been a transitory magistracy: L. Minucius
Augurinus was the first appointed to the office. He did all he
could to keep prices down : he ordered the existing stores to be
opened, compelled the proprietors to sell the corn at a fixed
price, and made purchases among the neighbouring nations;
but his measures were too slow, and the means employed for
the purpose were not sufficient. No effectual help was afibrded
but by a plebeian eques, Sp. JNIaclius. He at his own expense
caused large quantities of grain to be purchased in Etruria and
the country of the Volscians, and distributed the corn among
the poor. We cannot indeed conceive that his private pro-
perty could have been very large, but at such times even a
little aid it^ welcome. A person who conferred such benefits
SP. MAELIUS — CIJSTCINNATUS. 231
upon his fellow-citizens, became easily suspected in the states
of antiquity of acting from impure motives. Maelius accord-
ing-ly was accused of trying to gain over the people, and by
their assistance the tyrannis. Minucius is said to have reported
to the senate that many plebeians assembled in the house of
Maelius, and that arms had been carried into it. No man can
presume to say whether this accusation was well founded or
not; but at any rate it would have been senseless for a man to
form a conspiracy, who was not distinguished for anything but
his wealth, and who would have been opposed no less by the
tribunes than by the patricians. But however this may be, he
was regarded as the head of a party, and in order to crush him,
the senate and the curies appointed L. Quinctius Cincinnatus
dictator, and he chose Servilius Ahala for his master of the
horse. In the night Cincinnatus occupied the Capitol and the
other fortified places, and on the next morning he set up his
curule throne in the forum, and sent Ahala to summon Maelius
before his tribunal. ]\Iaelius foresaw his fate, as no tribune
could protect him against the dictator; he accordingly refused
to appear, and concealed himself among the crowd of plebeians;
but Servilius Ahala seized and slew him on the spot. This act
is much admired by the ancients; but its merit is very doubtful,
as it may have been a mere murder. The inaefecius annonae,
according to a very probable account, is stated to have re-
nounced the patres, and to have gone over to the plebes, and
to have been appointed the eleventh tribune of the people. In
a few weeks, it is said, he succeeded in bringing down the
prices : this shows that the distress had been occasioned by arti-
ficial means rather than by actual scarcity. The corn contained
in the granaries of Sp. Maelius was taken by the senate and
distributed among the people. Moreover, according to Cicero,
Ahala was charged with murder before the plebes, and went
into exile : whether he was afterwards recalled, we do not know.
This also suggests a bad case. The house of Maelius was pulled
down. The Aequimaelium or place where it stood, was below
the Capitol, and is now quite buried under rubbish which
forms a hill at the foot of the Capitol : this point is of great
importance in Eoman topography.^
' The story about Maelius very much resembles one of a Pasha of Aleppo.
During a great scarcity, he convened all the most distinguislied persons, ordering
every one to state the amount of corn he pos. esscd. He then rode to their store-
houses, and on measuring the corn found double the quantity that had been
returned, and he accordingly look away the surphis, and the dearth ceased.— N.
232 VALERIAN LAW.
When tKe Valerian laws, as we have before seen, so far
limited the ancient right of the consuls to force the people to
obedience, that when they pronounced a person deserving of
corporal punishment^ he could appeal to the commonalty, a
certain sphere of inflicting punishment not subject to appeal
was necessarily left to the consuls, for otherwise their authority
would have been entirely destroyed. This right of punishment
consisted in the infliction of fines, which regulation also is
ascribed to Valerius. But this is improbable, for the law of
the consuls Tarpeius and Aternius, which was passed by the
centuries, and by which the multa was fixed in heads of
cattle, as is expressly stated by Cicero {De Re Publico}, is
framed in terms which are too precise. This could not have
been the case, if the Valerian law had already determined the
limitation, unless indeed the rulers had afterwards again been
guilty of most arbitrary proceedings. I may remark in general
that all that is said about the Valerii is of a doubtful character,
as A^alerius Antias looked upon himself as belonging to the
Valerian gens, and invented a great many things to honour it;
the Valerii themselves too were vain of popular favour. That
law fixed two sheep and thirty heifers as the highest multa,
concerning which Gellius makes a thou2'htless remark, when
he says that sheep were then so rare that two sheep were equal
in value to thirty heifers, though immediately afterwards he
himself mentions the value; that of a sheep as ten, and that of
an ox as one hundred asses. The fact is simply, that the con-
suls graduallv increased their fine so as to leave the return to
obedience open : he who did not appear on the first summons,
had to give one sheep, if he refused on the second, two sheep,
tlien a heifer, etc. There is yet another circumstance, which
we know from Cicero and which shows how little confidence
can be placed in other accounts: it was not till twenty- five
years later that the value of these things was fixed in money,
and at a very moderate rate. Cicero justly regards this as an
advance in the liberty of individuals.
The number of quaestors or paymasters who had formerly
been elected by the king or the curies, and afterwards accord-
ing to the law of Poplicola by the centuries, was increased
from two to four, and they were to be partly patricians and
partly plebeians. At first the patricians prevented the execu-
tion of this luwj but afterwards the plebeians successfully cstab-
NEW RIGHTS GIVEN TO THE CENTURIES. 233
lislied their claim. This progress "was not merely a matter of
honour, but a reality, inasmuch as it concerned the immediate
interests of the plebeians, for they now had a share in the
administration of the public purse, which accordingly was no
longer a publicum, but an aerarium. By this means, as I have
already observed, the senate also was opened to the plebeians,
and nothing but the censorial power could remove them from
it.
A flirther progress towards liberty was the fact, that, about
tAventy years after the decem viral legislation, the right to de-
termine upon peace and war was transferred from the curies to
the centuries. That the curies originally possessed this right,
is established by the testimony of Dionysius, but as the ple-
beians alone were destined to serve in the ranks and the patri-
cians deprived them of the booty, it was natural that the
tribunes should demand for their order the right to determine,
as to whether they wanted war or not, and the tribvmician op-
position to declarations of war was nothing but a reservation of
the rights of the plebes. ^\^ien the centuries had passed a
resolution to declare war, the curies had of course to give their
assent; and this they unquestionably always did, as the proposal
proceeded from the senate, and as it is inconceivable that the
senate and curies should not have been of one mind.
The existence of plebeian senators is clear beyond a doubt;
it is expressly attested that P. Licinius Calvus sat in the senate,
and hence when an interrex was to be appointed, it was not the
decem primi alone that met — for through the admission of the
plebeians they had lost their meaning — but all the patricians
of the whole senate. This act was termed patricii coeunt ad
interregem prodendum, and may have been established even by
the laws of the twelve tables. We can easily understand that
the Romans might know the laws of the twelve tables by heart,
and yet not see that there was in them something different
from what existed afterwards.
We have now seen how, from tlie time of the decemviral
legislation down to the taking of the city by the Gauls, inter-
nal freedom was in a steady process of development, corre-
sponding to the outward increase of dominion, which shows the
necessary connection between the two.
The history of the Italian nations is known to its almost
exclusively through the Komans; yet if we possessed it, it
234 WARS WITH THE SABINES.
would supply us with the only means of understanding the
external history of Rome ; for the latter is frequently not only
defective, but deceitfully corrupted. The decline of the state
after the expulsion of the kings may have been the consequence
partly of internal commotions, and partly of the feuds with the
Latins ; but afterwards the influence of the Etruscans from the
north gave a fresh blow to Rome, and at the same time the
extension of the Sabines and their colonies produced a great
effect. The Romans called the latter Sabelhans, for Sahellus
is the ordinary adjective along with Sabinus like Hispanus and
Hispellus, Graecus and Graeculus, Poenus and Poenulus, Romus
and Roimdus ; it was not till later times that the termination lus
assumed a diminutive meaning. Sabellus is perfectly equival ent
to Sabinus, except that, according to common usage, Sabelli
denotes the whole nation, and Sabini only the inhabitants of
the small district which bears that name. These extensions of
the Etruscans and Sabines, then, were the principal cause of
the decline of Rome, and without them the wars of Porsena
would not have taken place. If the Etruscans had spread in
another direction, and if the Sabellians had not been them-
selves pressed upon and obliged to advance, the Ausonian
tribes, especially the Aequians, would not have been driven to
make conquests.
The period of Etruria's greatness falls in the middle of the
third century after the building of the city, according to the
testimony of Cato that the Etruscan colony of Capua or Vul-
turnum was founded about the year A.M. 260, that is, about
the time when the Romans were so hard pressed by the
Veientines. At that time the Etruscans, or, as the Greeks
call them, the Tyrrhenians, were the most formidable conque-
rors ; but a crisis took place in the destruction of their navy
by the Cumssans who were assisted by Hiero, about the end of
the third century. We can speak of this change only in ge-
neral terms, for unfortunately all the detail is lost. A mighty
part of the history of man is here buried in darkness. AlDout
the same time their power was broken on the Tiber also.
The Sabines often appear as enemies of the Romans in the
opposite direction, during the latter half of the third century;
the earlier accounts of the victories of Valerius over them are
quite apocryphal. We will not attempt to decide whether
they were dangerous to the Romans, but there can be no doubt
THE CAMPANIAN PEOPLE. 235
that wars were fouglit witli the Sabines as with the other
tribes in the neighbourhood; all the detail, however, consists
of poetical fictions. But towards the end of the third century,
history becomes clearer and clearer, and we can perceive traces
of the ancient annals. The last Sabine war is that which was
carried on by Valerius and Horatius in the first year of the
restoration of the consulship ; it is related too minutely to de-
serve credit in all its parts, but it is certain, that, during the
subsequent period of nearly one hundred and fifty years down
to the time of Curius, the Sabines did not carry on any war
against the Eomans. This must have had its peculiar reason ;
and I perceive this reason in a treaty of which not a trace is
left, but by which isopolity was established between the two
nations: the existence of that isopolity is attested by Servius
in his commentary on Virgil.
About the year a.u. 310, the formation of the Campanian
people is mentioned, for it is said that at Vulturnum or Capua
the Etruscans admitted Samnites as epoeci, and shared their
territory with them. This is a proof of the progress of the
Sabines in those parts, for the Samnites were a Sabine people.
The Aequians and Volscians discontinued their attacks upon
Rome, and the Sabine wars ended : hence we here recognise
the time when the migration of the Sabines to the south
ceased, and they left off pressing the Ausonian mountaineers.
The Etruscans stopped all at once, as is naturally the case with
a people governed by an oligarchy : when such a people comes
to a state of rest, it never puts itself in motion again, or ac-
quires fresh life : at least history furnishes no example of the
kind. In this manner we may connect the events which the
Romans have recorded in a very confused manner.
During the period from A.U. 306 to 323, there was almost a
total cessation from wars ; the account of the insurrection at
Ardea, in which the Romans were called upon for assistance,
has something so strange about it, that we can place no reliance
on it: we have here a complete repetition of the story of
Cincinnatus surrounding the hostile army. But in the year
323 the war broke out afresh and seriously. We do not know
whether the Antiatans took part in it; but there is no doubt
that Ecetra did. They then met the Aequians on mount
Algidus. The Roman armies fought against them between
Velitrae, which was Volscian, Tusculum, and the Alban
236 A. rOSTUMlUS tubertus.
mount: but a battle was lost, wliereupon A. Postumiua
Tubertus was appointed dictator. This war is perfectly his-
torical and accurately described; but whether it is true that
A. Postumius gave weight to his imperium in the minds of
those who fought under him, by inflexible severity towards
his own son, may remain undecided; the prevailing opinion
is, that Manlius followed his example, but from the expression
imperia Manliana no inference can be drawn; Livy's attempt
to prove the contrary is, at all events, futile. Postumius led
the whole strength of the republic and her allies against the
enemy; he gave one army to the consul, and took the other
for himself; the former was stationed on the road to Lanuvium,
the latter on that to Tusculum, near the point where these
two roads crossed each other. The \^olscians and Aequians
were stationed in separate camps, one of which was opposed
by the consul, and the other by the dictator, but the two
armies were near each other. The enemy attacked the consul's
camp in the night; but the dictator being prepared, sent a
detachment to take possession of the Volscian camp, which waa
almost entirely abandoned, and he himself led the greater part
of his army to the assistance of the consul, and attacked the
enemy in the rear. The latter were completely cut to pieces
with the exception of a small band of men, who, under the
command of the brave Vcttius Messius, fought their way
through the Romans.
This battle is one of those which exert an influence upon
the history of the world : it broke the power of the Volscians
of Ecetra and of the Aequians ; the massacre must have been
immense. The Aequians forthwith sued for peace, and obtained
it for eight years; from this moment they ceased to be formid-
able. After this time the Komans were constantly extending
their dominion, and recovered the places which had been taken
from them in former wars by the S-^olscians and Aequians.
Among them we have express mention of Lavici^, formerly
one of the great Latin towns, Bolae or Bola, Velitrae, Circcii,
Anxur, Ferentinum, which had formerly belonged to the
Hernicans and must now have been restored to them, since it
re-appears among their towns. In this manner, tlie Romans
advanced as far as the boundaries of Latium in the narrower
sense, that is just as far as they had penetrated under the kings.
* Labici, which wc commonly read in Livy, is a mistake of the fomth and
fit'tii centuries for Laviri. TIic opposite mistake, To/rt instead cf Bola occurs in
iJic earlv rditi<)n5. — N.
THE AGRARIAN LAW. 237
111 the same way Setia, Norba, Cora, and Signia must have
been recovered, aud as the Romans and Latins now no longer
stood on a footing of equality, they must have come under the
sole dominion of Rome. In the country of the Aequians, the
Romans advanced to lake Fucinus. The subjugation of the
Volscians rendered it possible for them to carry on the fearful
war against Veii. In consequence of these conquests, many
poor people were provided for, by means of Roman colonies
established at Lavici and Velitrae; and the colony at Circeii
was probably made a Latin one.
After a long interval, the agrarian law was seriously brought
forward again in the year A. U. 345; it had been previously
mentioned only once, but slightly. The cause of this silence
in the preceding years is not quite clear; some assignments of
colonies took place, but always in conjunction with the Latins
and Hernicans, and without any beneficial consequences for
those who did not wish to give up their Roman country and
franchise. Times of contentment or of discontent in history
correspond not so much to the political development of rights,
as to prosperity in general : in happy circumstances man likes
to enjoy life without thinking much of his political condition.
Such a period occurred in Germany previously to the thirty
years' war, when every thing rose in value, and the internal
condition of the country was tranquil : the same was the case
in France under Henry IV. Such also, on the whole, was the
condition of Rome at the time under consideration, and this
was perhaps the principal reason why no violent internal com-
motions occurred for so many years. If, however, dviring such
a period new powers have been developed, then new claims
also arise, which are put forth at once and with vehemence :
this was now the case with the agrarian law. Till now, the
patricians had with great cunning succeeded in excluding the
plebeians from the honors which belonged to them ; consuls
were often elected instead of military tribunes, and the number
of the latter was frequently not complete ; but now the plebeians
began to insist upon certain claims. The humiliation of Rome
abroad occasioned by the wars of the Etruscans and Volscians
had ceased, new conquests quickly raised the city to a great
height, and under these circumstances the tribunes exerted
their powers for the advantage of the members of their own
order. The conquest of Lavici afforded the first opportunity
238 MURDEK OF M. POSTUMIUS.
for such measures, and its consequences must have been far
greater than those described by Livj : a colony was demanded
for that place, but the Roman senate refused it. The Cassian
law was now never mentioned, but the tribunes brought a new
lex tnbunicia agraria before the tribes : it was demanded that
the public land should be divided, and that the portion of it
possessed by the patricians should again become subject to a
tax; the latter had originally been a regulation in all agrarian
laws, but the patricians had contrived to neglect this obligation
with impunity. These demands of the tribunes were not
complied with indeed, but they led to the foundation of several
colonies of Roman citizens, that is purely Roman colonies,
whence thev are called coloniae Romanae. After the taking of
Bolae, an unfortunate military tribune, M. Postumius, had
sold all the booty for the benefit of the publicum {publicum
redigere^ for the publicum was the separate treasury of the
curies). This so infuriated the soldiers, that they rose against
the quaestor and slew him. The military tribune, who tried
the offenders for this crime, drove them to despair; in conse-
quence of which they rose against him also, and imbrued their
hands in his blood, the only instance of the kind that occurred
before the time of Sulla. The senate treated the matter leniently,
for the guilt was too evident. The consequences of this insur-
rection must have been very great, though Livy says nothing
about them, for from this time forward we never find less than
six military tribimes, and their election seems to have been
transferred at that time from the centuries to the tribes, for '
otherwise it would be very careless of Livy to speak of a
tribus praerogativa. The curies, however, still continued to
confer the imperium upon those who were elected.
Rome now directed her arms against Veil, which was situ-
ated at the distance of about twelve miles and measured nearly
five miles in circumference; its territory must have extended
to the very foot of the Janiculum. This city was a thorn in
the side of Rome, which could not become great imtil this
rival wj s conquered. Fidenae which is called an Etruscan
city but was really Tyrrhenian, is described from the earliest
times, and even in the reign of Romulus, as involved in war
with Rome; it was situated on the Tiber five miles above
Rome, and had at an early period been occupied by Roman
colonists, who had been repeatedly expelled but were always
LARS TOLUMNIUS. 239
restored. It was either in A. u. 320 or 329 -^ when the Fide-
natans again rebelled against the Roman colonists and expelled
them. We must conceive these colonists as a settled garrison, who
had their own flirms. Three Roman ambassadors appeared at
Fidenae to demand reparation and the restoration of the
colonists. This demand appeared to the Fidenatans so out-
rageous, that they slew the Roman ambassadors, and threw
themselves into the arms of Lars Tolumnius, king of Veii ; for
all the Etruscan towns were governed by kings elected for life.
Tolumnius marched across the Tiber to their assistance ; and as
the Romans, after the conquest of the Aequians and Volscians,
had now become formidable neighbours, the Capenatans and
Faliscans, two Oscan tribes which had maintained themselves
in those districts against the Tyrrhenians, likewise came to the
assistance of the Fidenatans. This army posted itself five miles
from Rome on the other side of the Anio and created great
terror in the city. A dictator was appointed, who chose the
military tribune A. Cornelius Cossus for his master of the horse.
The Romans fought a successful battle, and Cornelius Cossus
with his own hands slew the Veientine king, who was charged
though probably unjustly, with having murdered the Roman
ambassadors."* After tlris victory, Fidenae was taken and razed
to the ground, and its territory became ager puhlicus. With
the Veientines a truce was concluded; and it must have been
welcome to the Romans to have peace in that quarter, until
they should have completely broken the power of the Aequians
and Volscians.
T\Taen the truce was drawing to its close, the Veientines sent
ambassadors to all the other Etruscan towns to solicit their
assistance against the Romans; but it was refused, because
another and far more dangerous enemy had appeared in the
Apennines, and after the fashion of a Turkish invading army
destroyed everything that came in their way : these were the
' Two wars are here related, but they are, according to all appeai-ance, trans-
posed ; the minute account of one at least is out of place, and probably belongs
to the year 329, although hostilities may have occun-ed in 320 also; this at all
events is the Chronology of Diodorus, to ■\vliich we must adhere. — N.
* The Emperor Augustus du-ected Livy's attention to the fact, that Cossus, on
the groimd of having gained the spolia opima on tliat occasion, set liiiuself up as
consul, for that on his ai-mour he called himself consul. This is a later addition
in Livy, and stands quite apart from his naiTative, for otherwise he ought to
have placed the event seven years later. — N.
240 VEIENTINE WAR.
Gauls. The Etruscans advised the Veientines by all means to
maintain peace with the Romans; but the demands of the latter
may have been very high; they may have claimed the sove-
reignty of Veii, so that the Veientines were compelled to decide
upon war. If we compare tlie account of the first Veientine
war which occurred seventy years before, we find the Veien-
tines at that time supported by all the powers of Etruria,
whereas now they were confined to the protection of the
Capenatans^ and Faliscans; it w^as only in one campaign that
the Tarquinians came to their assistance; the Caerites were on
friendly terms with the Romans and therefore remained neu-
tral: the Etruscans indeed were masters of the place^ but the
population may have been still essentially Tyrrhenian. In
short, the war was limited to the Veientines and their imme-
diate neighboui's. Rome was obliged to make the greatest
efforts, and was supported by the Latins and Hernicans.
LECTURE XXIX.
The ridicule which Florus casts upon the hella suburbana : De
Verulis et Bovillis pudet dicere sed triumphavimus, is that of a
rhetorician, and we cannot quarrel w4th him for finding those
occurrences uninteresting. "Wars carried on in a limited terri-
tory cannot indeed have the same interest, as, for example, the
Hannibalian war, but still we may see in them the development
of the strength of Rome. We will not despise this Veientine
war, yet we shall not describe it as minutely as Livy does, but
confine our account to a few brief outlines. The feelings and
sentiments with which the Romans undertook it deserve our
admiration, for, considering their circumstances, the difficulties
were as great as those which they had to encounter at the be-
ginning of the first Punic war; it was only by continued
perseverance that they could hope for a favorable issue. A city
situated at so short a distance, and so well fortified as Veii
* The Etniscan town of Capena was probably as near to Rome as Veii,
tliotigh its site cannot be determined, because it disappears from history at an
early time; hut it was ccrtaiidy situate between Veii, Falorii. and the Tiber. — N.
MODE OF WARFARE WITH VEIL 241
could be conquered only by a blockade or siege ; for whenever
the Veientines felt that they were too weak in the open field,
they retreated within their walls, against which the Romans
were powerless. It was necessary, therefore, either to blockade
the town so as to compel it to surrender by hunger, and if
necessary by fortifications and undermining, or the Romans
had to try to reach it by inflicting calamities upon it, that is,
they might fortify a place in the neighbourhood (eTTirei^^io-i?),
as Decelea was fortified in the neighbourhood of Athens, and
thence destroy everything far and wide, preventing all culti-
vation of the fields, so that the hostile city would be thrown
into a state of distress, which it must endeavour to avoid in
every possible way. But in order to do this, the Romans
would have been obliged to chano-e their mode of warfare, and
moreover they had to fear the neighbouring towns of Capena
and Falerii. Hitherto they had only made short campaigns
during a few summer months, which often lasted only from
ten to twelve, nay, sometimes not longer than six days, espe-
cially during the time of the republic, for under the kings i
must have been difierent. There were from the earliest times
certain months destined for war, durino; which neio'hbourin^
tribes ravaged each other's territories: such was the case among
the Greeks, and such is still the practice of the Asiatics.
Russia and Persia fight every year for a few months on the
frontiers of Georgia; and in the laws of Charlemagne the time
is fixed during which nations are bound to serve in the field.
In the intervals, intercourse between the coimtries was more
or less free, and at the times of festivals especially it was quite
free, as, e. g. during the common festivals of the Etruscans at
the temple of Voltumna, and of the Ausonian nations at the
temple of Feronia. The soldiers could be kept in the field for
a limited time only, and when that was over they dispersed.
The means of Rome for keeping up a great army had been
much reduced since the Etruscan and Volscian wars. In former
times, the armies had been paid out of the tithes which were
paid by the possessor of the ager publicus, but since the ager
publicus had been lost, every one went into the field as an
olK6(rLTo<i, that is, he brought his provisions with him from
home, and whatever more was required, he obtained by forag-
ing; if this could not be done, the army was obliged to return
home. Hence we hear so little of sieges. But now when the
VOL. I. R
242 PAY OF THE SOLDIERS.
war was to be conducted seriously, and as arms were not to be
laid down till Veii sliould be subdued, it became necessary to
pay tlie soldiers. This determination was perhaps connected
with the proposal to recommence levying the tithes upon the
ager publicvis, and to pay the soldiers out of their produce.
But what seems to confirm the supposition that a stipendium
was generally paid even from the earliest times, is the state-
ment that in the census of Servius Tullius, the equites received
2000 asses : if so, why should not the pedites also have received
something? I conjecture that they were paid 100 asses, whe-
ther the war lasted a longer or a shorter period : and out of this
sum the soldier had to provide himself with arms and provi-
sions. So long as this was the case, wars of conquest were
impossible, for in them the soldiers must be entirely maintained
by the state, and this latter is the arrangement which was made
when, according to tradition, the Koman soldiers first received
a stipendium. It would be wrong to suppose that before that
time they had no pay at all ; but the diiference between receiv-
ing a small sum once for all, or a small daily pay is considerable.
We may take it for granted, that the aerarli, being exempt
from military service, were at all times obliged to pay a war-
tax for the pedites, as the o?-bi orhaeque did for the equites; for
it is impossible that the double burden of serving with his life
and his property should have fallen on the plebeian.
The pay of the Eomans then, from early times, was 100
asses per month for every man, and this pay was proportioned
to their wants. Such pay was invariably given at Athens
after the time of Pericles, but probably not earlier. The pay
of an Athenian hoplite was enormous, but at Rome, where
the allies did not pay any contributions, it was necessarily
smaller. One hundred asses continued in later times to be
the monthly pay. When the asses were made too lights they
were calculated in silver in the proportion of one to ten.
Every three days the soldier received a denarius (the value of
a drachma), that is, daily two oboli. The stipendium was
regarded as a unit, but was afterwards multiplied (multiplex
stipendium. Domitian added a quartum stipeiidium). This,
however, is at all times to be understood only of one month.
The excellent Radbod Hermann Scheie errs in supposing, on
the authority of writers who are worth nothing, that the
stipendia were annual, which is in itself impossible, and would
IMPOSITION OF TAXES. 243
have answered no purpose. In this supposition, he was for
once deserted by his practical good sense. The pay was
given only for the time during which the soldiers were
actually in the field. If the war lasted a whole year, pay was
of course given for a year. Livy, in making Appius Claudius
say, annua aera habes, annuam oj)eram ede, merely makes him
express his own erroneous opinion.
This innovation was of extraordinary importance to the
republic; for without a national army, Rome would never
have become great. Now if it had been possible to give the
pay without imposing a tax, it would have been fortunate
indeed; but if the patricians did not pay the tithes on the
ager publicus, or if the revenue of the state was not sufficient,
the plebeians must have felt the war very oppressive, for it
then became necessary to obtain the pay by a property-tax,
and it might so happen that the service in the army lasted a
very long time. This injustice, however, was necessary. The
plebeians had formerly not been taxed, probably because they
had not been able to pay; but during the last twenty years,
Rome had been ever increasing in prosperity, so that it Avas
now possible to tax the plebeians, although it gave rise to
new distress, which led again to the old oppression exercised
by creditors on debtors. An army, however, might now be
kept in the field all the year round. At the same time a
change was made in the armour. Livy says, posfquam stipen-
diariifacti sunt, scuta pro clupeis hahehant ; seeming to suppose
that this change was occasioned by the introduction of pay for
the soldiers. The first step to it may certainly have been
taken even previously to the Gallic wars.
The Romans began the last Veientine war with the deter-
mination to conquer Veii. The republic, which now again
extended as far as Anxur, began to feel her own strength,
since she had gained the victory over the Aequians, and was
at least on friendly terms with the Sabines. How far the
Latins took part in this war is uncertain, but it is likely that
their co-operation did not extend beyond the Tiber. It is not
an improbable statement, that soon after Anxur, Circeii also
was recovered by the Romans; so that the only place which
still maintained its independence as a Volscian state was
Privernum, a town at the foot of the hills. The weakness
of the Ausonian nations was the result of the extension of the
244 THE YEAR OF TEN MONTHS. — ALLIES OF VEIL
Samnites, and must have inclined tlaose nations to keep peace
with Rome. The Romans thus had time to make a per-
manent conquest of countries which probably they had no
lonirer to share with the Latins.
The preceding war with the Veientines had been succeeded
by a truce of twenty years. The Etruscans, like many other
nations of antiquity, were accustomed to conclude their wars
by a mere truce for a certain number of years, and these years
consisted of ten months. A proof of the latter assertion is the
fact, that in nearly all instances, hostilities break out sooner
than could have been expected if the years had been years
of twelve months, but never earlier than would have been the
case if the years were reckoned equal to ten months. The
truce between Rome and Veil had been concluded in A.U. 330,
and is said to have ended {induciae exierunt) in A.U. 347. The
use of this year of ten months was very common among the
Romans: it was the term established for mourning and for all
money transactions. In the sale of corn, ten months' credit
was a matter of course. Loans for a niunber of years were
unknown, and all business was done only for short periods,
being founded on personal credit like debts arising from bills
of exchange. The Veientines, contrary to their former prac-
tice, endeavoured to avoid the war by every possible means.
There can be no doubt, that probably in consequence of its
situation, Veii had formerly been the head of many Etruscan
towns; for in previous wars its power appears very great.
But the invasion of the Gauls caused the towns south of the
Apennines, such as Arretium, Faesulae, and others, to be
called upon to assist their countrymen beyond the mountains.
This assistance was useless; the loss was great, and Etruria
wasted her life-blood in the plains of Lombardy. Tarquinii
and Capena alone supported Veii; the Aequi Falisci did the
same, though not as an Etruscan people, but because they
looked upon Veii as their bulwark.
The Romans at first believed they could bring the war to a
speedy termination. They built strong forts in the Veientine
territory, just as Agis did in Attica during the latter period of
ths Peloponnesian war ; and issuing from those forts, they
prevented the Veientines from cultivating their fields, or
burnt the ripe crops, so that distress and famine soon shewed
themselves in the city. This system of warfare is designated
THE SIEGE OF VEIL 245
on this occasion by the word obsessiu. The Eomans only once
undertook to carry on a siege according to the simple manner
of the time. Between two forts, a line parallel to the wall of
the city was formed, consisting of accumulated rubbish, sacks
of sand and fao-oots, and on both sides of it wooden fences
(^plutei) were erected to give consistency to the rampart. It
was pushed nearer and nearer to the city, an operation which
presented the main difficult}'. These works were raised to
about the same height as the wall, to which bridges and
scaling ladders were applied {aggerem muru injungebant), and
then the engines were brought up; at first battering-rams, but
in later times catapulta and ballistae, for these engines, which
were not yet known at Kome, were invented at Syracuse for
Dionysius. The besieged endeavoured to destroy the works
of the besiegers by imdermining them. But the neighbouring
tribes defeated the Romans, and destroyed their Avorks; and
from that moment several years passed away without the
Romans again pitching their camp at Veii.
The war of Veii presented to the ancients a parallel to the
Trojan war; the siege was believed to have lasted ten years;
and the taking of the city was as marvellous as that of Troy
by the wooden horse. But the account of the whole war is
not fictitious: the ancient songs took up isolated historical
points, which they worked out and embellished, and this con-
stitutes the difference between them and the lays of the earliest
history. An annalistic narrative which is by no means in-
credible, runs parallel to these lays. The defeat of the tribunes
Virginius and Seririus is historical, but the detail about the
Alban lake and the like belong to poetical tradition, and must
be taken as the ancients give them : whether they were com-
posed in prose or in verse is a matter of no consequence. The
story runs as follows : —
After Rome had already worn herself out in the struggle
with Veii for upwards of seven years, and in the midst of
the most profound peace with the Aequians and Volscians,
a prodigy appeared. The Alban lake, the waters of which
had always been below the edge of the ancient crater, began
to rise, and threatened to overflow the country: this is
the general substance of the ancient story, for in regard to
the detail the accounts contradict one another; according to
Dionysius and Dion Cassius (in Zonaras), a stream of water
246 THE TAKING OF VEIL
flowed from the lake straight towards the sea, while ac-
cording to others, the lake only threatened to overflow
its borders. The Romans knew not what to do; they had
fixed their posts near Veii; whenever there was no fighting, .
they observed a kind of truce : on one of these occasions, an
Etruscan aruspex ridiculed the Romans for taking so much
trouble to make themselves masters of Veii: so long as they
were not masters of the Alban lake, said he, they could not
take Veii. One Roman took notice of this remai"k, and
under the pretext of a procuratio rei domesticae invited the
aruspex to the camp. When he came, the Romans arrested
him, and compelled him to say what was to be done. He
answered that they must let off the waters of the Alban
lake, so that they might be conducted through one of the
nei2:hbourin2: rivers to the sea. The same answer was
given by the god of Delphi. The Romans now undertook
the work and finished it. AVhen it was nearly completed,
the Veientines sent an embassy to entreat the Romans to
receive their city in deditionem ; but the Romans would
not listen to the proposal, for they knew that the talisman
was broken. The Veientines did not contradict this, but
said that it was also written in their books that if Veii
should be destroyed, Rome would likewise soon be taken
by barbarians, and that this part of the prophecy had been
concealed from them by the aruspex. The Romans deter-
mined to run the risk, and appointed Camillus dictator; he
called upon all the people to take a part in securing the
booty, and undertook to storm the city: all duties towards
the gods were discharged, and human prudence now did
its work. Camillus formed a subterraneous passage which
led to a spot under the arx of Veii, and from that point a
passage was made to the temple of Juno; for fate had de-
termined that whoever should offer up the sacrifice in the
arx of Veii, should win the victory. The Romans penetrated
into the temple, slew the Etruscan king, and offered up the
sacrifice. At this moment the walls of Veii were scaled by
the Romans on all sides.
This is very pretty poetry, and if we examine the historical
nonsense of this account, we cannot hesitate for a moment
to believe in the existence of a poem. The arx of W'ii is
DRAINAGE OF THE ALBAN LAKE — SEVERE WEATHER. 247
still discernible': it is situated near tlie aqua rossa, almost
entirely surrounded by water, and is of a moderate height:
the rock consists of tufo. The Romans would have been
obliged to make their tunnel under the river, and to construct
it so cunningly that no one should perceive it, and that at last
they would only just have had to lift up the last stone in the
temple and to rise above ground as through a trap-door.
The fact was probably this. There were two kinds of sieges :
the first was the one described above, which consisted in throw-
ing up a mound of earth against the wall: according to the
second method, the walls Avere undermined with immense
labour, so that they rested only on a scafiblding of beams,
which was then set on fire, and thus the downfall of the walls
was caused. Battering rams probably do not occur previously
to the Peloponnesian war, and among the Romans not till a
still later time. If Veii was actually taken by a cuniculus, it
must be understood to have been by undermining the walls.
The letting off of the water of the Alban lake must certainly
belong to this period; for there is no reason for supposing that
a work of an earlier date was inserted here. The subterraneous
passages through whicli the water was carried off had probably
become obstructed, and Latium was in danger of being in-
undated; it is possible that use was made of the credulity of
the people to induce them to undertake this gigantic work,
but I believe that when the senate declared the work to be
necessary, there was no want of obedience. It must be supposed
that the Alban lake, like the Fucinus and all other lakes formed
in the craters of volcanoes, discharged its waters by subter-
raneous passages, which may have been filled up in consequence
of earthquakes. Livy, at a somewhat later time, speaks of a
severe winter during which the Tiber was covered with ice,
and says that epidemics were very prevalent in the following
summer: the newly discovered excerpts from Dionysius place
the building of the tunnel in the year alter that severe winter.
Livy relates, that during that winter the snow was seven feet
deep and that the trees were destroyed by frost; a statement
closely resembling the records of the annals, and quite credible,
although the ancient annals perished in the conflagration, for
such a winter must have been remembered by every one.
' Ii is a mere accident that I never was at Veii, but I have an acciu-ate
knowledge of the locality from maps and drawings. — N.
248 ANCIENT TUNNELS.
The winter of'A. U. 483 was equally severe, for suow covered
the forum for forty days. The early history of Rome would
indicate that the mean temperature of the air was then much
lower than it is now.^ In the history of Rome and Greece,
such unusual phenomena in the weather are nearly always
followed by fearful earthquakes : an eruption of Aetna occurred
about that time (a. u. 354). Vesuvius was then at rest, but
the earthquakes were fearful, and it is possible that by one of
them the outlets of the Alban lake were obstructed. In
general all lakes which have no outlet, have remarkable periods
in the increase and decrease of their waters. Lake Copa'is had
even artificial tunnels to let off the water into the sea of Euboea :
these were afterwards obstructed, and in the time of the
Macedonians all Boeotia was not able to raise the money neces-
sary for cleansing them ; in consequence of which the waters
rose and inundated the country far and wide. After that time
probably nothing was done to remedy the evil; it is very
likely, as Aristotle observes, that the quantity of water in
Greece was decreasing ; lake Copais is at present a mere swamp
and in reality no longer deserves the name of lake, but re-
sembles the bogs in our moors.
What the Romans did to prevent the overflow of the
water is extraordinary : the tunnel still exists uninjured of the
length of 2,700 paces or nearly three Roman miles ^, and the
water of the lake is reduced to a proper height. The advan-
tages of letting off the water are great even now, although
the coimtry around is uncultivated and covered with shrubs
and bushes, since it supplies water for domestic purposes to the
( .ampagna of Rome : and although this water is not very good,
still it is better than that in the wells of the Campagna. The
tunnel resembles the greatest Etruscan works: the entrance
■■' Conipiirc, on the uthcr hiuul, Hist of Jiume, vol. iii. n. 1034. I was unwill-
i ng to supjiress tlic above jjussage occnrring in the Lectures of 1826-7. According
to Arngo, the winter in Tuscany is less cold find tlie snmmer less hot than
tbrnierly. See Berglians, Lander mid Vblker. i. p. 248. — Eu.
' This statement l)elongs to tlie Lectures of 1828-9, and is the same in all the
manuscripts, but in 1826-7, Niebuhr said that the length of the tunnel had not
hen measured, Imt tliat it wiis estimated at 7,500 feet ux two and a half Roman
miles. In his Hist, of Home, ii p. 508, the length is said to be 6000 feet.
Abekcn (M/«e/i<a/(c«, p.l79) says: "The tunnel runs into the s^outh-western
side of the lake and is nearly 4000 feet long." The measurement given in the
text seems therefore to be based upon an error.— Eu.
THE TUNNEL AT THE ALBAN LAKE. 249
from the lake into it is like the vault of a temple executed in
the grandest style, whence we see that the Romans now again
built in the same manner as under the kings : this is charac-
teristic of the age of Camillus. The tunnel is cut for the most
part through a hard mass of lava, only a small portion running
through peperino which is more easily worked, and forms a pas-
sage nine palms high and five palms broad. By this work, which
has never yet required reparation, the lake, it seems, is per-
manently confined to a limited height : it was previously about
100 feet higher than the level to which it was then reduced.
It is an interesting point to know how such a work was exe-
cuted. Considering the imperfection of instruments in those
times when the compass was yet unknown, it must have been
extremely difficult to find the correct point at a distance of
more than two miles; and even now it would be attended with
great difficulties, for the architect must know to a line how
high he may build in order to find the inclined plane for the
watercourse. It is well known in the country and is also re-
corded in some books, that on the whole line from the lake to
the point in the plain whither the water was to be conducted,
there exist to this day open wells into which people descend to
cleanse the tunnel ; but these openings were not made merely
to enable the mud to be removed — the lake is not muddy —
but also to calculate the depth and let in air. By means of
these wells, the Romans were enabled accurately to calculate
the line as far as the issue. In our days people have so little
practice in levelling, that till very recently it was not known
that the lake of Nemi lies higher than that of Alba.-* The
construction of these wells rendered it possible to employ a
great many men at once, and to complete the work with toler-
able speed : from the bottom of each well two parties of work-
men might work in opposite directions and so as to meet other
parties commencing at the bottom of other wells. In this
manner the tunnel was formed till it came close up to the lake,
the entrance to which was undoubtedly made by means of a
stone-borer of the thickness of a little finger, since the wall of
basalt need not have been thicker than two cubits to resist the
whole pressure of the lake. The small opening being made,
the water ran off very gradually, so that the workmen had
time to be pidled up through the wells. W^ien this was done,
* It must be remembered that this was said in the year 1828.
250 TilE SACKING OF VEIL
the wall between the lake and the tunnel was knocked down,
and the entrance facing the lake was made in such a manner
as to prevent trees and the like from being carried into the
tunnel; tlie arch was then embellished and wrought into a
magnificent portico, like the entrance to a temple. Tliis struc-
ture eclipses all the works of Egypt: they are wonderful but
useless; this is practical and useful.
LECTURE XXX.
That Veil was taken by storm is certain: the people were
destroyed, and the city was methodically plundered. It is
related, that the whole Roman population was let loose upon
the place for the purpose of plundering it ; but this can refer
only to the men capable of bearing arms, and was done partly
on account of the proximity of Rome, and partly because in
the long protracted war all had taken a part in it. The fate
of the inhabitants of Veii was the same as that which befell so
many people of antiquity: whoever escaped from the sword,
was led away into servitude. When the city fell into the
hands of the Romans, it was empty. We readily believe that
it was a more beautiful place than Rome. The latter has an
excellent situation, but its picturesqueness is connected with
many disadvantages, for the territory round the city is exposed
to frequent inundations, and the intercourse within was very
difficult for carriages and other conveyances, on account of the
many hills and valleys. Veii, on the other hand, with the
exception of its arx, was situated in a plain , and probably had
beautiful and wide streets: no wonder therefore that the
Romans were loth to destroy the handsome city.
Immediately after the conquest, quarrels arose between the
gtjvernment and the plebcs who demanded a distribution of
the territory, while the former claimed the whole for tliem-
selves alone; but such a thing was no longer possible. Another
difficulty was occasioned by the beauty of Veii, for it was
thought a pity that it should remain deserted: it may easily
be conceived that Avhcn it was proposed to distribute the ter-
RESULTS OF THE TAKING OF VEIL 251
ritory, It was at the same time wished that those who were in
want of houses should have habitations assigned to them at
Veii. A tribune of the people proposed that if the patricians
thought the plebeians too low to live together with them, the
plebes with their magistrates should emigrate to Veii: it would
be folly to believe that the proposal was such as Livy describes
it, viz. : that half of the senate and the people should remove
to Veil. But even the other proposal calls forth doubts, for
the scheme would have been highly unreasonable, and the
objections which Livy raises against such a tearing up of the
republic are very important, and after all, a complete separa-
tion would have been impossible. It would have been dan-
gerous even to discuss the sending of a great colony with a
local government to Veii. But an arrangement was made:
the patricians secured the greater part of the territory for their
occupation, but the plebes also obtained a portion, and not only
each for himself the usual seven jugera forensia, but also
something in consideration of his children. According to
Diodorus, each flimily received twenty-eightyw^era; but if this
is true, the territory of Veii must have been enormous. The
aerarii had no share in these assignments^ but those among
them who were clients of patricians received allotments on the
farms of their patrons.
The sequel of these events shoAvs, that at that time the ter-
ritory of Veii and Capena, and of the Etruscan cities in
general, comprised large tracts of country with subject towns,
which, during the war threw themselves into the arms of the
Romans: those who did so were undoubtedly the ancient
inhabitants of those places, who saw in the Romans their
deliverers.
The conquest of Veii was one of the most decisive events in
history, for it delivered Rome from a counterpoise which checked
her development. As all the east of Latium was at peace, the
Romans irresistibly penetrated into Etruria, the Etruscans being
obliged in the mean time to exert all their powers in the Apen-
nines to keep oif the Gauls. But the war was also carried on
against the Faliscans: to judge from their name they were
A^oliscans, whence Virgil calls them Aequi Falisci. According
to Strabo, they had a peculiar language, and were a nation
different from the Etruscans. The war of Camillus against
them is known to us all from our childhood; the talc, that by
252 CAMILLUS FINED.
his generosity he influenced them so much, that they accepted
tlie treaty of friendship with the Romans, has great internal
improbability: the story of the schoolmaster's treachery I may
leave uncriticised. The war was moreover directed against the
Vulsinians, in whose territory the Romans made conquests and
with whom they concluded an advantageous peace. The Ro-
mans had then penetrated even beyond the Ciminian forest,
which afterwards in the great war of Fabius presents so fright-
ful an ajjpearance. The separation of countries by this forest
does not seem to have been very strongly marked at that time,
but afterwards it appears to have been intentionally allowed to
grow wild, that it might form a boundary, just as a forest
divides the Austrian from the Turkish part of Dalmatia. Ca-
pena is not afterwards mentioned in history, and must therefore
have been destroyed either by the Romans after the taking of
Veii or by the Gauls : it is an historical fact, that subsequently
to the Gallic calamity the surviving Capenatans became Roman
citizens.
After these victories, Camillus shone as the greatest general
of his age; but he was nevertheless accused of having appro-
priated to himself sundry valuable things from the Veientine
booty, especially the brass gates of the temple of Jimo, and of
having declared too late his obligation to dedicate the tenth
part of the booty to the Pythian Apollo. It would be an un-
profitable labour to speculate on the guilt or innocence of
Camillus; but we must not forget that every Roman general
was entitled to set apart a portion of the booty to himself We
cannot decide whether Camillus took more than he was legally
allowed or not; what one person does on a small scale another
does on a large. We must not believe that Camillus committed
the crime in secret, for he undoubtedly ordered the gates to be
fitted to his own house; if he had wished to make use of the
metal they would have been melted down long before. The
real cause of the hatred against Camillus was of a political kind,
for down to the end of his life he stood at the head of the most
stubborn patrician party; the plebeians were ever becoming-
stronger and more powerful, and the ease of prosperity had
produced a certain desire for excitement : Camillus was accused
because a considerable party was against him, and he was sen-
tenced to pay a sum of 15,000, or according to others 100,000
' Compare the speech of Fuhricius in Dionysms (p. 77, cd. Sylb.) — N.
CAMILLUS IN EXILE. 253
or even 500,000 asses. He did not wait for the sentence but
went into exile to Ardea. Livy says that previously to the
trial he implored his clients and tribules to do their utmost to
obtain his acquittal (this would prove that he was tried before
the centuries, for the tribes cannot possibly be meant) : they
are said to have declared that they would pay his fine, but not
acquit him : this would clearly prove his guilt. According to
Dionysius, his gentiles and clients actually paid the fine and he
went into exile from vexation. I believe however that he was
condemned by the curies, because when he was to be recalled,
the curies assembled in the Capitol to repeal the decree of ban-
ishment; for the curies could assemble only at Rome, and this
would prove likewise that he was found guilty, — a thing then
not uncommon with great men.
At that time no Eoman foresaw the calamity which was
threatening them. Rome had become great, because the
country which she had conquered was weak through its oli-
garchical institutions; the subjects of the other states gladly
joined the Romans, because under them their lot was more
favorable, and probably because they were kindred nations.
But matters went with the Romans as they did with Basilius,
who subdued the Armenians when they were threatened by
the Turks, and who soon after attacked the whole Greek em-
pire and took away far more than had been gained before.
The expedition of the Gauls into Italy must be regarded as
a migration, and not as an invasion for the purpose of conquest :
as for the historical account of it, we must adhere to Polybius
and Diodorus, who place it shortly before the taking of Rome
by the Gauls. We can attach no importance to the statement
of Livy that they had come into Italy as early as the time of
Tarquinius Prisons, having been driven from their country by
a famine : it undoubtedly arose from the fact, that some Greek
writer, perhaps Timaeus, connected this migration with the
settlement of the Phocaeans at IMassilia. It is possible that
Livy even here made use of Dionysius, and that the latter fol-
lowed Timaeus: for as Livy made use of Dionysius in the eighth
book, why not also in the fifth? He himself knew very little
of Greek history-; but Justin's account is here evidently op-
posed to Livy. Trogus Pompeius was born in the neighboxar-
hood of Massilia, and in writing his forty-third book, he
' Comp. Hist of Borne, vol. iii. n. 485.
254 THE GAULS.
obviously made use of native clironicles, for from no other
source could he derive the account of the decreta honorifica of
the Romans to the Massilians for the friendship which the latter
had shown to the Romans during the Gallic war; and from
the same source must he have obtained his information about
the maritime wars of Massilia against Carthage. Trogus knows
nothing of the story that the Gauls assisted the Phocaeans on
their arrival; but according to him, they met with a kind
reception among the Ligurians, who continued to inhabit those
parts for a long time after. About the year a.u. 350, that is,
about fifteen years before, Livy himself says, gentem invisiiatem^
novos acculas, Gallos comparuisse. Even the story of the Lucumo
who is said to have invited the Gauls is opposed to him, and if
it were referred to Clusium alone, it would be absurd. Poly bins
places the passage of the Gauls across the Alps about ten or
twenty years before the taking of Rome ; and Diodorus describes
them as advancing towards Rome by an uninterrupted march.
It is further stated, that Melpum in the country of the Insu-
brians was destroyed on the same day as Veii : without admittino-
tlois coincidence, we have no reason to doubt that the state-
ment is substantially true ; and it is made by Cornehus Xepos
who, as a native of Gallia Transpadana, might possess accurate
information, and whose chronological accounts were highly
esteemed by the Romans. There was no other passage for the
Gauls except either across the Little St. Bernard or across the
Simplon: it is not probable that they took the former road,
because their country extended only as far as the Ticinus, and
if they had come across the Little St. Bernard, they would
naturally have occupied also all the country between that
mountain and the Ticinus. The Salassi may indeed have been
a Gallic people, but it is by no means certain ; moreover be-
tween them and the Gauls who had come across the Alps the
Laevi also lived ; and there can be no doubt that at that time
Ligurians still continued to dwell on the Ticinus.
Melpum must have been situated in the district of INIilan.
The latter place has an uncommonly happy situation : often as
it has been destroyed, it has always been restored, so that it is
not impossible that IMelpum may have been situated on the
very spot afterwards occupied by IMilan. The Gallic migration
undoubtedly passeil by like a torrent with irresistible rapidity:
how then is it possible to suppose that I\lelpum resisted them
GALLIC MIGRATION. — BRENNUS. 255
for two centuries, or that tliey conquered it and yet did not
disturb the Etruscans for two hundred years? It would be
absurd to believe it, merely to save an uncritical expression of"
Livy. According to the common chronology, the Triballi who
in the time of Herodotus inhabited the plains, and were after-
wards expelled by the Gauls, appeared in Thrace twelve years
after the taking of Kome (according to a more correct chrono-
logy it was only nine years after that event). It was the same
movement assuredly which led the Gauls to the countries
through which the middle course of the Danube extends, and
to the Po : and could the people who came in a few days from
Clusium to Eome, and afterwards appeared in Apulia, have
been sitting quiet in a corner of Italy for two hundred years?
If they had remained there because they had not the power to
advance, they would have been cut to pieces by the Etruscans.
We must therefore look upon it as an established fact, that the
migration took place at the late period mentioned by Polybius
and Diodorus.
These Gauls were partly Celts, and partly (indeed prin-
cipally) Belgae or Cymri, as may be perceived from the
circumstance, that their king, as well as the one who appeared
before Delphi, is called Brennus. Brenin, according to Ade-
lung, in his Mithridates, signifies in the language of Wales
and Lower Brittany, a king. But what caused this whole
emigration? The statement of Livy, that the Gauls were
compelled by famine to leave their country, is quite in keep-
ing with the nature of all traditions about migrations, such as
we find them in Saxo Grammaticus, in Paul Warnefried from
the sagas of the Swedes, in the Tyrrhenian traditions of
Lydia, and others. However, in the case of a people like the
Celts, every specific statement of this kind, in which even
the names of their leaders are mentioned, is of no more value
than the traditions of other barbarous nations which were a
unacquainted with the art of writing. It is indeed well
known that the Celts in writing used the Greek alphabet, but
they probably employed it only in the transactions of daily
life; for we know that they were not allowed to commit their
ancient songs to writing. There was, however, among the
Celts a tradition which we find in Ammianus ]\Iarccllinus,
that Britain was one of their earliest seats. Now we meet
with them in different parts of Britain, Ireland, and Spain,
256 THE CELTS.
and in two places of Portugal, for the Celtic! and Celtae in
Portugal, wlio lived in Algarbia and Alemtejo, and between
the j\Iinho and Douro, were pure Celts. The Celtiberians in
Spain were a mixture of Celts and Iberians, and dwelt in the
very heart of the mountains between Saragossa and Madrid,
which are connected with the Pyrenees. ^ There was the
same tradition about those Celts in Spain as about their
appearance in Italy, for they were said to have been driven
thither by a famine, and then to have made conquests and
spread over the country. Here again we have a confusion of
the polarity in history. Wlaerever there is a national migra-
tion, we never find the invading people settled in scattered
groups. The dispersed inhabitants of such countries, especially
in mountainous districts, are usually remnants of the ancient
population, the bulk of which has either emigrated or become
changed. Among the Celtiberians the Iberians predominated,
but the Celts were the native people, united with the Iberians
who immigrated from Africa. The language which arose
from this union may have been a mixture of the two, but the
names of places are IlDerian. Similar changes of a great tribe
do sometunes occur in history. The Wends in Germany,
who were originally Slavonians, though the colonies founded
among them were not of much consequence, and there was
neither a German conquest, nor German princes, yet for the
most part adopted the German language.
LECTURE XXXI.
The existence of the Aipiitanians in Gaul, is a proof of the
mif^ration of the Iberians, for Ave are told by Caesar that they
were pure Spaniards; and there is no reason for supposing
that this migration took place at a late period, for the
Basques still live north of the Pyrenees. We have, moreover,
the statement of Scylax, that the people of Gaul, from the
Pyrenees to the river Rhodanus, was composed of Iberians
and Ligurians. The Celts at one time were masters of all
* The mountains of southern Spain are connected with those of Africa. — N.
THE CTMRI OK BELGAE. 57
Spain, with the exception of Andalusia; and besides Spain,
they occupied the south of France, Ireland, and a part of
England. The boundary of the Iberians cannot be accurately
fixed in the north, though in the earlier times it was the
Sierra Morena. In the south we find them in southern
Spain, in the Balearean islands, Sardinia, Corsica, and West-
ern Sicily; and lastly also in Africa.
The Cymri or Belgae were a people different from the
Celts, though akin to them. This diflference, concerning
which I expressed my opinion years ago, is of great import-
ance, and is now generally acknowledged. It is not a new
discovery; I have only brought forward facts which were
previously overlooked. Caesar's idea that the Belgae were a
mixture of Germans and Celts is erroneous. They were per-
fectly distinct from the Germans, although a small number of
words in their language are Germanic. In Caesar's time they
were unquestionably Cymri, somewhat mixed with Germans,
who had joined them in their migration. A part of Britain
too was inhabited by Cymri, who were probably the earlier
inhabitants, having afterwards been expelled by the Gael.
The latter were pressed on by the Iberians, the Cymri by the
Gael, and the Germans by the Cymri, who then inhabited the
north of France and the low countries, which were subse-
quently inhabited by Celts.
The south of France from the Pyrenees, Lower Languedoc,
and the valley of the Ehone, Piedmont, and Lombardy, as far
as the Etruscans, were occupied by the Ligurians, a great
European nation. Scylax states, that Lower Languedoc had
a mixed population of Iberians and Ligurians, and in later
times, which cannot be chronologically determined, the Celts
drove the Iberians from Spain as far as the Garonne, and the
Iberians forced the Ligurians to retire as far as the district of
Aix in Provence, an event which may be recognised from its
consequences. By this impulse the Gauls and Cymri together
were compelled to emigrate : some Cymri retreated before the
Gauls and went away, but others joined them. The Gauls
and Cymri were very different from one another, for their
language and grammar are quite distinct. The two great
migrations under Bellovesus and Sigovesus, which are men-
tioned by Livy, must be regarded as true, although the leaders
are perhaps nothing but personifications. The one directed
VOL. I. S
258 GALLIC INVASION OF ITALY.
towards Italy, between the Alpine tribes of the Etruscans and
the Lignrians, overran the Etruscan towns in the plain of
Lombardy ; the other extended north of the Alps. The
Raetians, Lepontians, Camunians, Stonians, and other Alpine
tribes in the Tyrol and the Southern Alps, as far as Verona,
maintained their ground like islands among the invading
Gauls, who poured in around them like a sea; so that their
situation reminds us of that of the three Celtic tribes in Spain.
The misfration of which the Helvetii were a remnant, has
been sufficiently explained in my Essay on the Scythians and
Sarmatians.' It first appears about the Black Forest, where
it rested for a while, and thence proceeded towards the middle
Danube, Hungary, and Lower Slavonia. There the migratory
hordes undertook the difficult conquest of the high mountains,
and then spread over Macedonia, Thrace, and Bulgaria.
They also advanced across the Danube as far as the Dnieper,
but being repelled by the Sarmatians, they again threw them-
selves upon Europe. This is the only known instance in which it
is clear, that the torrent of a migrating people rolls on till it
meets with insurmountable obstacles, and then returns with
the same rapidity. At the time when Herodotus wrote (about
A.U. 320), the people on the middle and lower Danube still
lived undistiirbcd in their ancient seats. The Scythians
inhabited Moldavia and Wallachia as far as Transylvania.
Slavonia and Lower Hungary were inhabited by the Agathyi'si
and Triballi. But nine years after the taking of Rome by the
Gauls, the Triballi appear in the ncighboui'liood of Abdera in
Thrace, and afterwards we find them on the southcra part of
the Danube in Bulgaria. The Scythians, on the other hand,
were confined to Bessarabia as early as the time of Philip ; and
in the time of Alexander, the Gctae were in possession of
Moldavia and Wallachia. The nation that brought about this
change was the Gauls, and that in the same migration dm-ing
which they poured in upon Italy.
Scylax (Olymp. 106) was aware that there were Gauls at
the head of the Adriatic, which was afterwards inhabited by
the Carnians and Noricans; they Avere, according to him, a
remnant of the Gallic migration, and a part of the Gauls who
had advanced fiirther dwelt in Sirmium; thence they crossed
the Danube under the name of the Bastarnians, and forced the
' Fn tlie Kleirte Hist. Sr/irif/cn, Erstc Sammhtng, i>.,3.'52, etc.
EXTENT OF GALLIC MIGRATIONS. 259
Getae to tlii'ow themselves into Hungary and Transylvania ;
afterwards they spread in the Ukraine. From the important
inscription of Olbia published by Kohler, we see that the
Galatians, and along with them the vSciri (afterwards a German
people), lived about the Dnieper, and this fact agrees well with
the disappearance of the Scythians at that time. For there
was also an eastern migration of the Sarmatians, a people
whom Herodotus knew only beyond the Tanais; Scylax, who
lived seventy years later, speaks of them as living on the
western side of that river: in the inscription of Olbia they
appear east of the Dnieper, and under Augustus they destroyed
the Greek towns in Wallachia. This movement afterwards
caused the migration of the Cymri or Cymbri, for the Cymri
always took part in the migration of the Celts : among them
were the Bastarnae, who lived in the south of Poland and in
Dacia, and were expelled by the Sarmatians: J. von Miiller was
the first who saw the truth of the statement of Posidonius, that
the Cimbri did not come from Jiltland but from the East; he
did not see however that they were originally Belgie, or, as the
Greeks call them by a more general name, KeXjai. It is fool-
ish to claim the victories of the Cimbri as having been gained
by the German nation.
These migrations extended in Germany as far as the river
Mayn and the forest of Thliringia, nay even Bohemia was
inhabited by Celts previously to the time of Caesar, and some
of their tribes existed in that country as late as the time of
Tacitus, for the Gothini still continued to speak Gallic; and
the Noricans in Austria were of the Celtic race. The Kaetians
were Etruscans, and the Vindelicians Liburnians. .The Helvetii
conquered the greater part of Switzerland, but the country
about the St. Gothard remained in the possession of the ancient
inhabitants. The Gauls penetrated into Italy only through a
limited part of the Alps, probably across the Simplon, and the
Valais was the sole bond between the Gauls in Italy and their
kinsmen north of the Alps. As far as Aosta the ancient in-
habitants maintained themselves, for the Salassians, Taurinians
and others were Ligurians, and the people at the foot of the
St. Gothard were Etruscans. The Ligurians were a very war-
like people and kept their ground on both sides of the Alps;
the Allobroges, however, were pure Celts. Hence Gallia
Cisalpina in our maps is much too large, and that even in
S 2
260 GAULS AT CLUSIUM
D'Anvllle's map. Piedmont formed no part of it; it com-
prised only the Austrian territory of Milan, Bergamo and
Brescia, Lombardy soutli of tlie Po as far as the Adriatic, and
north of the Po to about the lake of Garda. Thus all the
country occupied by them was in the plain, and this is another
reason why their migration cannot have lasted as long as Livy
states.
During this Gallic migration we are again made aware how
little we know of the history of Italy generally : our knowledge
is limited to Rome, so that we are in the same predicament
there, as if of all the historical authorities of the whole German
empire wc had nothing but the annals of a single imperial city.
According to Livy's account, it would seem as if the only object
of the Gauls had been to march to Rome ; and yet this immigra-
tion changed the whole aspect of Italy. After the Gauls had
once crossed the Apennines, there was no further obstacle to
prevent their marching to the south of Italy by any road they
pleased; and it is in fact mentioned that they did proceed
farther south. The Umbrians still inhabited the country on
the lower Po, in the modern Romagna and Urbino, parts of
which were occupied by Liburnians. Poljdnus says that many
people there became tributary to the Gauls^ and that this was
the case with the Umbrians is quite certain.
The first historical appearance of the Gauls is at Clusium,
whither a noble Clusine is said to have invited them for the
piirpose of taking vengeance on his native city. Whether this
account is true, however, must remain undecided, and if there
is any truth in it, it is more probable that the offended Clusine
went across the Apennines and fetched his avengers. Clusium
has not been mentioned since the time of Porsena ; the fact of
the Clusines soliciting the aid of Rome is a proof how little
that northern city of Etruria was concerned about the fate of
the southern towns, and makes us even suspect that it was
allied with Rome; however, the danger was so srreat that all
jealousy must have been suppressed. The natural road for the
Gauls would have been along the Adriatic, then through the
country of Umbrians who were tributary to them and already
quite broken down, and thence through the Romagna across
the Apennines. But tlie Apennines which separate Tuscany
from the Romagna are very dillicult to cross, especially for
sumplcr horses; as therefore tlie (iauls could not enter Etruria
EMBASSY TO THE GAULS. 261
on that side, which the Etruscans had intentionally allowed to
grow wild, and as they had been convinced of this in an un-
successful attempt, they crossed the Apennines in the neigh-
bourhood of Clusium, and appeared before that city. Clusium
was the great bulwark of the valley of the Tiber ; and if it
were taken, the roads along the Tiber and the Arno would be
open, and the Gauls might reach Arezzo from the rear: the
Romans therefore looked upon the fate of Clusium as decisive
of their own. The Clusines sued for a treaty with the mighty
city of Rome, and the Romans were wise enough readily to
accept the offer : they sent ambassadors to the Gauls ordering
them to withdraw. According to a very probable account, the
Gauls had demanded of the Clusines a division of their terri-
tory as the condition of peace, and not, as was customary with
the Romans, as a tax upon a people already subdued: if
this is correct, the Romans sent the embassy confiding in
their own strength. But the Gauls scorned the ambassadors,
and the latter, allowing themselves to be carried away by
their warlike disposition, joined the Etruscans in a fight
against the Gauls: this was probably only an insignificant
and isolated engagement. Such is the account of Livy,
who goes on to say, that the Gauls, as soon as they
perceived this violation in the law of nations, gave the
signal for a retreat, and having called upon the gods to avenge
the wrong marched against Rome. This is evidently a mere
fiction, for a barbarous nation like the Gauls cannot possibly
have had such ideas, nor was there in reality any violation of
the law of nations, as the Romans stood in no kind of connec-
tion with the Gauls. But it was a natural feeling with the
Romans to look upon the fall of their city as the consequence
of a nefas, which no human power could resist. Roman
vanity also is at work here, inasmuch as the Roman ambassa-
dors are said to have so distinguished themselves, that they
Avere recognized by the barbarians among the hosts of Etrus-
cans. Now according to another tradition directly opposed to
these statements, the Gauls sent to Rome to demand the surren-
der of those ambassadors: as the senate Avas hesitating and left
the decision to the people, the latter not only rejected the de-
mand, but appointed the same ambassadors to the office of mili-
tary tribunes, whereupon the Gauls with all their forces at once
marched towards Rome. Livy here again spealcs of the pnjmUia
262 MARCH OF THE GAULS^UrOX HOME.
as the people to whom the senate left the decision : this must
have been the patricians only, for they alone had the right to
decide upon the fate of the members of their own order. It is
not fair to accuse the Komans on that occasion of dishonesty;
but this account assuredly originated with later writers who
transferred to barbarians the right belonging to a nation stand-
ing in a legal relation to another. The statement that the
three ambassadors, all of whom were Fabii, were appointed
military tribunes, is not even the usual one, for there is another
in Diodorus, who must here have used Roman authorities
written in Greek, that is, Fabius ; since he calls the Caerites
KalpioL and not ^AyvWaioc. He speaks of a single ambassador,
who being a son of a military tribune fought against the Gauls.
This is at least a sign how uncertain history yet is. The
battle on the Alia was fought on the 1 6th of July : the military
tribunes entered upon their office on the first of that month ;
and the distance between Clusium and Rome is only three
good days' marches. It'is impossible to restore the true history,
but we can discern what is fabulous from what is really his-
torical.
An innumerable host of Gauls now marched from Clusiimi
towards Rome. For a long time the Gauls were most formid-
able to the Romans, as well as to all other nations with whom
they come in contact even as far east as the Ukraine; as to
Rome, we see this as late as the Cisalpine war of the year A.U.
527. Polybius and Diodorus are our best guides in seeking
for information about the manners of the Gauls, for in the time
of Caesar they had already become changed. In the descrip-
tion of their persons we partly recognise the modern Gael, or
the inhabitants of the Highlands of Scotland : huge bodies,
blue eyes, bristly hair; even their dress and armour are
those of the Highlanders, for they wore the checked and
variegated tartans {sagula virgata, versicoloria); their arms
consisted of the broad unpointed battle-sword, the same
weapon as the claymore among the Highlanders. They had
a vast number of horns, which were used in the Highlands for
many centuries after, and threw themselves upon the enemy in
immense and irregular masses with terrible fury, those standing
behind impelling those stationed in front, whereby they became
irresistible by the tactics of those times. The Romans ought
to have used against them their phalanx and doubled it, until
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GAULS. 263
they were accustomed to this enemy and were enabled by
their greater skill to repel them. If the Romans had been
able to withstand their first shock, the Gauls would have easily
been thrown into disorder and put to flight. The Gauls who
were subsequently conquered by the Romans were the descend-
ants of such as were born in Italy, and had lost much of their
courage and strength. The Goths under Vitiges, not fifty
years after the immigration of Theodoric into Italy, were
cowards and unable to resist the 20,000 men of Belisarius:
showing how easily barbarians degenerate in such climates.
The Gauls moreover were terrible on account of their inhuman
cruelty, for wherever they settled, the original towns and their
inhabitants completely disappeared from the face of the earth.
In their own country they had the feudal system and a priestly
government: the Druids were their only rulers, who avenged
the oppressed people on the lords, but in their turn became
tyrants: all the people were in the condition of serfs, — a proof
that the Gauls, in their own country too, were the conquerors
who had subdued an earlier population. We always find
mention of the wealth of the Gauls in gold, and yet France
has no rivers that carry gold-sand, and the Pyrenees were then
no longer in their possession : the gold must therefore have
been obtained by barter. i\Iuch may be exaggeration ; and
the fact of some noble individuals wearing gold chains was
probably transferred by ancient poets to the whole nation,
since popular poetry takes great liberty especially in such
embellishments.
Pliny states that previously to the Gallic calamity, the
census amounted to 150,000 persons, which probably refers
only to men entitled to vote in the assemblies, and does not
comprise women, children, slaves and strangers. If this is
correct, the number of citizens was enormous; but it must
not be supposed to include the inhabitants of the city only,
the population of which was doubtless much pmallcr. The
statement of Diodorus that all men were called to arms to
resist the Gauls, and that the number amounted to 40,000,
is by no means improbable: according to the testimony ol
Polybius, Latins and Hernicans also were enlisted. Another
account makes the Romans take the field against the Gauls
with 24,000 men, that is, with four field-legions and four
civic legions: the field-legions were formed only of plebeians,
264 COMPOSITION OF THE ROMAN ARMY.
and served, according to the order of the classes, probably
in maniples; the civic legions contained all those who be-
longed neither to the patricians nor to the plebeians, that is,
all the aerarii, proletarii, freedmen, and artizans who had never
before faced an enemy. They were certainly not armed with
the pilum, nor drawn up in maniples; but used pikes and were
employed in phalanxes. Now as for the field-legions, each
consisted half of Latins and half of Romans, there being in
each maniple one century of Romans and one of Latins. There
were at that time four legions, and as a legion, including the
reserve troops, contained 3,000 men, the total is 12,000; now
the account which mentions 24,000 men, must have presumed
that there were four field-legions and four irregular civic ones.
There would accordingly have been no more than 6,000
plebeians, and, even if the legions were all made up of Romans,
only 12^000; if in addition to these we take 12,000 irregular
troops and 16,000 allies, the number of 40,000 would be
completed. In this case, the population of Rome would not
have l^een as large as that of Athens in the Peloponnesian war,
and this is indeed very probable. The cavalry is not in-
cluded in this calculation : but 40,000 must be taken as the
maximum of the whole army. There seems to be no exag-
geration in this statement, and the battle on the Alia, speaking
generally is an historical event. It is surprising that the
Romans did not appoint a dictator to command in the battle ;
it cannot be said indeed that they regarded this war as
an ordinary one, for in that case they would not have raised
so great a force, but they cannot have comprehended the
danger in all its greatness. New swarms continued to come
across the Alps; the Senones also now appeared to seek
habitations for themselves; they, like the Germans in after-
times, demanded land, as they found the Insubrians, Boians
and others already settled; the latter had taken up their
abode in Umbria, but only until they should find a more
extensive and suitable territory.
The river Alia possesses no remarkable feature, and one
might almost be inclined to believe that the aspect of the
country in that district has changed. It is only by the
distances being mentioned that we can determine the river
called Alia. The ancients describe it as a river with hi-^di
banks, but the modern river which must be identified with it.
BATTLE OF THE ALIA. 265
has no such banks. The name has entirely disappeared. In
summer all the rivers of that country have very little water,
and the position behind it was therefore of little avail. The
Romans committed the great mistake of fighting with their
hurriedly collected troops a battle against an enemy who had
hitherto been invincible. The hills along which the right
wing is said to have been drawn up are no longer discernible,
and they were probably nothing but little mounds of earth-:
at any rate it was senseless to draw up a long line against the
immense mass of enemies. The Gauls, on the other hand,
were enabled without any difficulty to turn off to the left.
They proceeded to a higher part of the river, where it was
more easily fordable, and with great prudence threw them-
selves with all their force upon the right wing, consisting of
the civic legions. The latter at first resisted, but not long;
and when they fled, the whole remaining line, which luitil
then seems to have been useless and inactive, was seized with
a panic. Terror preceded the Gauls as they laid waste every-
thing on their way^, and this paralysed the courage of the
Romans, instead of rousing them to a desperate resistance.
The Romans therefore were defeated on the Alia in the most
inglorious manner. The Gauls had taken them in their rear,
and cut off their return to Rome. A portion fled towards the
Tiber, where some effected a retreat across the river, and
others were drowned ; another part escaped into a forest. The
loss of life must have been prodigious, and it is inconceivable
how Livy could have attached so much importance to the
mere disgrace. If the Roman army had not been almost
annihilated, it would not have been necessary to give up the
defence of the city, as was done, for the city wag left unde-
fended and deserted by all. Many fled to Veil instead of
returning to Rome: only a few, who had escaped along the
high road, entered the city by the Colline gate. Rome was
exhausted, her power shattered, her legions defenceless, and
her warlike allies had partly been beaten in the same battle,
" It is very difficult to recognise the places in Lombai'dy where the battles of
1799 were fought, because the roads have since been laid different^. The same
is the case at Liitzen, Breitciifeld, and Leuthen; nay, even at Prague and Colliu
it is not an easy matter to identify the fields of battle. — N.
' The Gauls destroyed all the towns in Gallia Cispadana, and they themselves
lived only in villages. When subsequently the Romans conquered the country
of the Insubrians, they found no trace i>f the ancient population. — N.
266 CONSTERNATION OF THE ROMANS.
and were partly awaiting the fearful enemy in their own coun-
tries. At Rome it was believed that the whole army was
destroyed, for nothing was known of those who had reached
Veii. In the city itself there were only old men, women, and
children, so that there was no possibility of defending it. It
is, however, inconceivable that the gates should have been
left open, and that the Gauls, from fear of a stratagem, should
have encamped for several days outside the gates. A more
probable account is, that the gates were shut and barricaded.
We may form a vivid conception of the condition of Rome
after this battle, by comparing it with that of Moscow before
the conflagration : the people were convinced that a long-
defence was impossible, since there was probably a want of
provisions. Livy gives a false notion of the evacuation of the
city, as if the defenceless citizens had remained immovable in
their consternation, and only a few had been received into the
Capitol. The determination, in fact, was to defend the Capi-
tol, and the tribune Sulpicius had taken refuge there, with
about 1000 men. There was on the Capitol an ancient well
which still exists, and without which the garrison would soon
have perished. This well remained unknown to all antiqua-
ries, till I discovered it by means of information gathered
from the people who live there. Its depth in the rock
descends to the level of the Tiber, but the water is now not
fit to drink. The Capitol was a rock which had been hewn
steep, and thereby made inaccessible, but a clivus, closed by
gates both below and above, led up from the Forum and the
Via Sacra. The rock, indeed, was not so steep as in later
times, as is clear from the account of the attempt to storm it;
but the Capitol was nevertheless very strong. Whether some
few remained in the city, as at Moscow, who in their stupe-
faction did not consider what kind of enemy they had before
them, cannot be decided. The narrative is very beautiful,
and reminds us of the taking of the Acropolis of Athens by
the Persians, where, likewise, the old men allowed themselves
to be cut down by the Persians. Notwithstanding the impro-
babihty of the matter, I am inclined to believe that a number
of aged patricians — their number may not be exactly histo-
rical — sat down in the Forum, in their ofBcial robes, on their
curule chairs, and that the chief pontiff devoted them to
death. Such devotions are a well-known Roman custom. It
DEVASTATION OF ROME. 267
is certainly not improbable that the Gauls were amazed when
they fomid the city deserted, and only these old men sitting so
immoveable, that they took them for statues or supernatural
visions, and did nothing to them, until one of them struck a
Gaul who touched him, whereupon all were slaughtered. To
commit suicide was repugnant to the customs of the Romans,
who were guided in many things by feelings more correct and
more resembling our owu, than many other ancient nations.
The old men, indeed, had given up the hope of their country
being saved; but the Capitol might be maintained, and the
survivors preferred dying in the attempt of self-defence, to
taking refuge at Veii, where after all they could not have
maintained themselves in the end. The sacred treasures were
removed to Caere, and the hope of the Romans now was, that
the barbarians would be tired of the long siege. Provisions
for a time had been conveyed to the Capitol^ where a couple
of thousand men may have been assembled, and where all
buildings, temples, as well as public and private houses, were
used as habitations. The Gauls made fearful havoc at Rome,
even more fearful than the Spaniards and Germans did in the
year 1527. Soldiers plunder, and when they find no hmuan
beings, they engage in the work of destruction ; and fires
break out, as at Moscow, without the existence of any inten-
tion to cause a conflagration. The whole city was changed
into a heap of ashes, with the exception of a few houses on
the Palatine, which were occupied by the leaders of the Gauls.
It is astonishing to find, nevertheless, that a few monuments
of the preceding period, such as statues, situated at some
distance from the Capitol, are mentioned as having been pre-
served ; but we must remember that travertino is tolerably fire
proof That Rome was burnt down is certain; and when it
was rebuilt, not even the ancient streets were restored.
The Gauls were now encamped in the city. At first they
attempted to storm the clivus, but were repelled with great
loss, which is surprising, since we know that at an earlier
time the Romans succeeded in storming it against Appius
Herdonius. Afterwards they discovered the footsteps of a
messenger who had been sent from Veii, in order that the
state might be taken care of in due form ; for the Romans in
the Capitol were patricians, and represented the curies and the
government, whereas those assembled at Veii represented the
2G8 PESTILENCE AT ROME.
tribes, but had no leaders. The latter had resolved to recall
Camillus, and raise him to the dictatorship. For this reason
Pontius Cominius had been sent to Rome to obtain the sanc-
tion of the senate and the curies. This was quite in the spirit
of the ancient times. If the curies had interdicted him aqua
et igni, they alone could recall him, if they previously obtained
a resolution of the senate authorising them to do so ; but if he
had gone into voluntary exile, and had given up his Roman
franchise by becoming a citizen of Ardea before a sentence
had been passed upon him by the centuries, it was again in
the power of the curies alone, he being a patrician, to recall
him as a citizen; and otherwise he could not have become
dictator, nor could he have regarded himself as such.
LECTURE XXXII.
It was the time of the dog-days when the Gauls came to Rome,
and as the summer at Rome is always pestilential, especially
during the two months and a half before the first of September,
the unavoidable consequence must have been, as Livy relates,
that the barbarians, bivouacking on the ruins of the city in the
open air, were attacked by disease and carried off, like the
army of Frederick Barbarossa when encamped before the castle
of St. Angelo. The whole army of the Gauls, however, was
not in the city, but only as many as were necessary to blockade
the garrison of the Capitol; the rest were scattered far and
wide over the face of the country, and were ravaging all the
unprotected places and isolated farms in Latium; many an
ancient town, which is no longer mentioned after this time,
may have been destroyed by the Gauls. Xoue but fortified
places like Ostia, which could obtain supplies by sea, made a
successful resistance, for the Gauls were unacquainted with the
art of besieging. The Ardeatans, whose territory was likewise
invaded by the Gauls, opposed them, under the command of
Camillus*; the Etruscans would seem to have endeavoured to
' A difficult passage in Ovid's Metamorphoses must perhaps be referred to
this war: he says, that out of the nii)is of the town of Ardea, which had been
ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL. 2(59
avail themselves of the opportunity of recovering Veil, for we
are told that the Romans at Veii, commanded by Caedicius
o-ained a battle against them, and that, encouraged by this suc-
cess, they began to entertain a hope of regaining Rome, since
by this victory they got possession of arms.
A Roman of the name of Fabius Dorso, is said to have
offered up in broad daylight, a gentilician sacrifice on the
Quirinal; and the astonished Gauls are said to have done him
no harm — a tradition which is not improbable.
The provisions in the Capitol were exhausted, but the Gauls
themselves being seized with epidemic diseases became tired of
their conquests, and were not inclined to settle in a country so
far away from their own home. They once more attempted to
take the Capitol by storm, ha-\ang observed that the messenger
from Veii had ascended the rock, and come down again near
the Porta Carmentalls, below Araceli. The ancient rock is
now covered with rubbish, and no longer discernible. The
besieged did not think of a storm on that side ; it may be, that
formerly there had in that part been a wall, which had become
decayed; and in southern countries an abundant vegetation
always springs up between the stones^, and if this had actually
been neglected it cannot have been very difficult to climb up.
The Gauls had already gained a firm footing, as there was no
wall at the top. The rock which they stormed was not the
Tarpeian, but the arx — when Manlius who lived there was
roused by the screaming of the geese : he came to the spot and
thrust down those who were climbing up. This rendered the
Gauls still more inclined to commence negotiations ; they were
moreover called back by an inroad of some Alpine tribes into
Lombardy, where they had left their wives and children : they
oftered to depart if the Romans would pay them a ransom of a
thousand poiinds of gold, to be taken no doubt from the Capi-
toline treasury. Considering the value of money at that time.
laid Avaste by the barbarians, there arose a heron. INIodern commentators have
incorrectly referred this destruction to theHannibalian-ivar; it might be an allu-
sion to some Samnito war, in which Ardea was dcstro}-ed, as we mav jtcrhaps
infer from Strabo, who says that the Samnites carried their conquests as far as
Ardea; but the Samnites were surely not called b;u-barians: wc jirobahh- have
here the reverse of the tradition given in the text, that the Ardcatans uniier
Camillus conquered the Gauls. — N.
' Virgil says: Galli per dumus ddenint, and Livy too speaks ofvirquUa. N.
270 PEACE WITH THE GAULS.
tlie sum was enormous: in the time of Theodosius indeed, there
were people at Rome who possessed several hundred weights of
gold, nay, one is said to have had an annual revenue of two
hundred weights. There can be no doubt that the Gauls
received the sum they demanded, and quitted Rome; that in
weighing it, they scornfully imposed upon the Romans is very
possible, and the vae victis too may be true : we ourselves have
seen similar things before the year 1813. But there can be no
truth in the story told by Livy, that while they were disputing
Camillus appeared with an army and stopped the proceedings,
because the military tribunes had had no right to conclude the
treaty. He is there said to have driven the Gauls from the
city, and afterwards in a two-fold battle to have so completely
defeated them that not even a messenger escaped. Beaufort,
inspired by Gallic patriotism, has most excellently shown what
a complete fable this story is. To attempt to disguise the mis-
fortunes of our forefathers by substituting fables in their place
is mere childishness. This charge does not affect Livy indeed,
for he copied only what others had written before him ; but he
did not allow his own conviction to appear as he generally does,
for he treats the whole of the early history with a sort of irony,
half believing, half disbelieving it.
According to another account in Diodorus, the Gauls be-
sieged a town allied with Rome (its name seems to be miswritten
but is probably intended for Vulsinii), and the Romans relieved
it and took back from the Gauls the gold which they had paid
them ; but this siege of Vulsinii is quite unknown to Livy. A
third account in Strabo and also mentioned by Diodorus does
not allow this honour to the Romans, but states that the Cae-
rites pursued the Gauls, attacked them in the covmtry of the
Sabines and completely annihilated them. In like manner the
Greeks endeavoured to disguise the fact, that the Gauls took
the money from the Delphic treasury and that in a quite histo-
rical period (Olymp. 120). The true explanation is undoubt-
edly the one found in Polybius, that the Gauls were induced
to quit Rome by an insurrection of the Alpine tribes, after it
had experienced the extremity of humiliation. Whatever the
enemy had taken as booty was consumed, they had not made
any conquests but only indulged in plunder and devastation ;
they had been staying at Rome for seven or eight months, and
could have gained nothing further than the Capitol and the
DEPARTURE OF THE GAULS. 271
very money which they received without taking that fortress.
The account of Polybius throws light upon many discrepant
statements, and all of them, not even excepting Livy's fairy-
tale-like embellishment, may be explained by means of it. The
Romans attempted to prove that the Gauls had actually been
defeated, by relating that the gold afterwards taken from the
Gauls and buried in the Capitol, was double the sum paid to
them as a ransom; but it is much more probable that the Ro-
mans paid their ransom out of the treasury of the temple of the
Capitoline Jupiter and of other temples, and that afterwards,
double this sum was made up by a tax, which agrees with a
statement in the history of Manlius, that a tax was imposed for
the purpose of raising the Gallic ransom : surely this could not
have been done at the time of the siege, when the Romans
were scattered in all parts of the country, but must have taken
place afterwards for the purpose of restoring the money that
had been taken. Now if at a later time there actually existed
in the Capitol such a quantity of gold, it is clear that it was
believed to be a proof that the Gauls had not kept the gold
which was paid to them.
Even as late as the time of Cicero and Caesar, the spot was
shewn at Rome in the Carinae, where the Gauls had heaped up
and burned their dead ; it was called busta Gallica, which was
corrupted in the middle ages into Portogallo, whence the
church which was built there was in reality called S. Andreas
in bustis Gallicis, or according to the later latinity in busta
Gallico, — busta Gallica not being declined.
The Gauls departed with their gold which the Romans had
been compelled to pay, on accoimt of the famine that prevailed
in the Capitol which was so great that they pulled the leather
from their shields and cooked it, just as was done during the
siege of Jerusalem. The Gauls were certainly not destroyed.
Justin has preserved the remarkable statement that the same
Gauls who sacked Rome went to Apulia, and there offered
for money their assistance to the elder Dionysius of Syracuse.
From this important statement it is at any rate clear, that they
traversed all Italy, and then probably returned along the shore
of the Adriatic : their devastations extended over many parts
of Italy, and there is no doubt that the Aequians received their
death-blow at tliat time, for henceforth we hear no more of the
hostilities of the Aequians against Rome. Praeueste. on the
272 CONSEQUENCES OF
other hand, which must formerly have been subject to the
Aequians, now appears as an independent town. The Aequians,
who inhabited small and easily destructible towns, must have
been annihilated during the progress of the Gauls.
There is nothing so strange in the history of Livy as his
view of the consequences of the Gallic calamity ; he must have
conceived it as a transitory storm by which Rome was humbled
but not broken. The army according to him was only scattered,
and the Romans appear afterwards just as they had been before,
as if the preceding period had only been an evil dream, and as
if there had been nothing to do but to rebuild the city. But
assuredly the devastation must have been tremendous through-
out the Roman territory: for eight months the barbarians had
been ravaging the country, every trace of cultivation, every
farmer's house, all the temples and public buildings were des-
troyed; the walls of the city had been purposely pulled down,
a large number of its inhabitants were led into slavery, the
rest were living in great misery at Veil; and what they had
saved scarcely sufficed to buy their bread. In this condition
they returned to Rome. Camillus as dictator is called a second
Romulus, and to him is due the glory of not having despaired
in those distressing circumstances. After the time of the
Volscian war, Rome had no longer been able to concede to her
former allies, who were then in a state of weakness, the same
rights as before : they had been subjects of Rome for nearly
seventy years, though Rome was very mild in the use of her
power. But all those people who had suffered less than Rome,
now renounced her supremacy, and this is the defectio Latino-
rum qui pa' centum fere annos nunquam ambigua fide in amicitia
populi Romani fuerant, of which Livy speaks : nothing is more
natural than that they should assert their independence. It
would be very lamentable if unnatural regulations had an in-
vincible power, rendering it impossible for that which is in
accordance with nature finally to become established. It is
quite a different question how it necessarily came to j^ass that
shortly before the Gallic invasion the Romans in reality had
the supremacy; this certainly was the case, as under similar
circumstances among the seven Dutch provinces, although all
had perfectly equal rights, yet Holland in fact stood at their
head, and occupied the rank which belonged to it in virtue of
Its wealth and popiilation. In like manner, Rome might be
THE GALLIC INVASION. 273
regarded as tlie head of the confederacy, but only so long as
she was in possession of all her power.
There is an ancient tradition that during the famine, the
aged were killed in order to save them from the pangs of death
by starvation, and to preserve the little means which yet re-
mained for those who were to perpetuate the republic. Things
were almost as bad as at the destruction of Magdeburg, where
the nmnber of inhabitants was reduced from 30,000 to 3,000.
Even after it was rebuilt, Rome must for several generations
have been only a shadow of what it had been previously to its
destruction. It is quite natural that the people should have
been desponding, and that the tribunes should have insisted
upon abandoning Rome and settling at Yeii. It is the merit of
Camillus that he resisted this pusillanimous despondency, and
he was on that occasion supported by his high aristocratic senti-
ments. It required great acuteness to hit upon the right plan :
the gods had abandoned Veii, and Juno had loudly declared that
she would not inhabit it, but Rome. The discussions upon this
subject in Livyhave a peculiar charm. I do not mean to say, that
Rome would not have been able to strike new roots at Yeii, but it
is more probable that it would have entirely perished; the
Latins would have made themselves masters of the left bank of
the Tiber, and perhaps a Volscian or Latin colony would have
been established on the seven hills. The situation of Rome on a
river between three nations had been chosen by Providence
for her greatness ; its advantages are obvious : but at Veii the
Romans would perhaps have become Etruscans. The senate
now acted like a severe flither : after it had passed the resolu-
tion to rebuild Rome, which was very hard for the poor, an
order was issued that, for the purpose of restoring Rome, Yeii
shoidd be destroyed. The senate, it is said, gave gratis, tiles,
stones and other building materials, all of which were to be
found at Yeii, the buildings of which were the property of
the Roman republic. The materials had now to be carried to
Rome. The new habitations were badly built huts, and it was
only gradually tliat better houses were erected. The senate
gave the people leave to build as they pleased, for according to
Roman principles all private property had during the confusion
reverted to the state, which now gave permission to occupy it
anew. The walls were restored, and the dangerous place in
the Capitol where the Gauls climbed up, was strengthened by
VOL.1. T
274 ROMAN CONTRACTS OF LOAN.
a substructure of square blocks. It was not till the time of
Augustus that Veii was restored as a military colony, but it
was only a small place like Gabii, Lavici and others.
The longer I have been engaged in these investigations, the
more satisfaction have I derived from them. I am conscious
of having searched after truth without allowing myself to be
dazzled by authority. ^\^ien I find that statements which I
had absolutely rejected, are after all, correct in a certain sense,
and that they have become imperfect only through want of
knowledge or through having fallen into oblivion, I am always
greatly rejoiced. This has happened to me frequently, and
especially in regard to the liistory of the Roman rate of interest
and the laws about usury. If I am to state what I think, I
must say that before my time these subjects were in the
greatest confusion. During the eighteenth century, the
antiquities of the Eoman law, especially the jus publicum,
were sadly neglected: I except Schultiug. Heineccius, a man
deserving of all honour, possessed great talent and learning,
but did not know what course to take ; he laboured under the
same mistake as the men of the sixteenth century whose
disciple he was, and had no independence of judgment. A
variety of opinions have been published on the Roman rate of
interest: among others Hugo of Gottingen has written upon
the subject: he came forward as the founder of a new school
of learned jurisprudence; he was a man of excellent taste,
and took great interest in these questions, but did not possess
the solid learning which is required for such discussions.
Savigny and I were long ago convinced, that what Hugo had
written on the rate of interest was worth nothing, and that
the whole subject must be investigated anew. Savigny did
not undertake the task, but I was led to it in the course of
my investigations into Roman history: my results have been
confirmed by Schrader of Tubingen, and my opinions are now
generally adopted.' Roman contracts of loan were concluded
for years of ten months each, and one ounce was paid as
interest upon one As, that is, one twelfth part of the capital,
which is as much as ten per cent, in a year of twelve months.
' As an artist opens his pupil's eye and trains it best 1a- working in liis pre-
gcncc, so it is in science also: he who has searched all his life certainly does a
service to his disciples if lie sho^vi; to them the manner in which he made pro-
fjress, and sometimes also how he was obliged to retrace his steps. — N.
USURY AT ROME. 275
Hugo thought that one twelfth was paid for every mon th
which proves that he had no perception of what is possible in
the affairs of practical life. Jurisprudence, in general, has
two sides : the one is science or theory, and the other the prac-
tice of ordinary life; in regard to the latter, we Germans are
in a wrong way: in other countries things are better, inas-
much as the knowledge of theory goes more hand in hand
with the relations of practical life. It is quite remarkable
that there are teachers of law, who have no knowledge of
actual affairs, which appears to me as absurd as if a man v/erc
to come forward to teach medicine without having any notion
of disease. A practical knowledge must support historical
jurisprudence, and if any one has got that, he can easily master
all scholastic speculations. The later Roman law of debt was
taken entirely from the Greek law, and the calculation of the
syngrapha and centesimae, such as it existed in the time of
Cicero, arose from the condition of things established in the
Greek cities of Athens, Rhodes and Alexandria. We read in
Tacitus, that thefoenus unciarium was introduced by the laws
of the twelve tables, and in Livy that it was established at the
beginning of the fifth century. These statements have been
considered an inexplicable contradiction, and I too formerly
beHeved that Tacitus was mistaken ; but I am now of a diffe-
rent opinion. We must here make a distinction : it does not
follow from Livy's account that the foenus unciarium was not
mentioned in the twelve tables. Down to the time of the
Gallic invasion we hear of no complaint about usury, but after-
wards, when every one was obliged to build, the law of usury
was probably abolished, in order to enable every one to obtain
money on any terms. Hence arose a dreadful state of debt;
and forty years later the ancient laws of usiu'y were re-estab-
lished. Livy is therefore probably correct in saying that at
one time the taking of interest was entirely forbidden. In the
year 1807, some friends of mine in opposition to my urgent
remonstrances, carried a decree by which the laws of usury were
abolished in Prussia; but the consequences were very unfortu-
nate. Afterwards the money could not be paid, and then
faciehant vei'suram, that is, the interest was added to the capital.
It is unaccountable how men could be found at that time to
advance the money; it is true people were content Avith satis-
fying their most pressing wants, and for this reason the senate
t2
276 CONDITION OF THE COMMONALTY.
allowed them to build as they pleased ; but however much the
state might do to facilitate the building, still the restoration
must have been immensely expensive. I believe that the
means were obtained through the clientela : the grand determi-
nation to restore Rome, which had been made by the senate in
the consciousness of her immortality, was very imposing and
must have made people believe that the strength of the state
was unexhausted ; and thus capitalists in various parts of Italy
may have been tempted to go to a place where they might
expect to make enormous profits : the patricians had probably
not been able to rescue such immense capitals from the Gallic
calamity. "WTien therefore a Syracusan or a Neapolitan came
to Rome with ready money, he was not allowed to lend it
himself, and accordingly became the client of a patrician who
concluded the nexum ibr him. In this manner the condition
of the commonalty down to the passing of the Licinian laAV
was extremely Avretched, and it was unfair that the order
which enjoyed so many advantages in the state, should
also derive a usurious interest from their less fortunate fellow-
citizens.
LECTURE XXXIII.
If Rome alone had been destroyed by the Gauls, as the
reader of Livy must believe, unless he rises to a higher point
of view, it' would be inconceivable how Rome could have
maintained herself against the neighboiu-ing nations, which
had seized the opportunity of shaking off her yoke. But her
neighbours like herself had undoubtedly deeply felt the calamity,
even supposing that they defended their towns, and that many
may have warded off devastation by a heavy war-tax. The
condition of a great part of Italy reminds us of the time which
followed immediately after the termination of the Thirty Years'
AVar,when new wars broke out forthwith. I shall give you only
brief sketches of these events. We clearly see that the Etrus-
cans rose against the Romans, and that this affair terminated
favorably for the latter. Sutrium and Nepet were then the
FOUR NEW TlilBES. 277
Roman frontier towns towards Etruria, — all the rest, including
Falerii, was lost, — and even these towns were sometimes be-
sieged and actually taken; when the Romans had reconquered
them they formed them into colonies. The war was carried
on mainly against the Tarquinians and Vulsinians. The fact
of the Etruscans endeavouring to recover the conquests made
by the Romans, shews that the Etruscan confederacy also was
then in a state of dissolution, for the northern Etruscans were
fighting against the Gauls, while the southern ones attacked
Rome. In the accounts of our historians, however, these
Etruscan wars are still as full of fabulous statements as the
former ones. At this time we ever3'where, even in Greece, see
a dissolution of the ancient confederacies, and a tendency to
unite into larger states. The condition of Latium was such,
that we may say there was no longer any bond to keep the
confederacy together. Antium, Velitrae and Circeii, whose
colonists were either expelled or made common cause with the
Latins and Volscians, as well as the Hernicans, were separate
from Rome, and scarcely the nearest towns such as Tusculum
and Lanuvium remained faithful to her. Praeneste now be-
came an important place : the Praenestines and Tiburtines seem
at that time to have been allied, and Praeneste may perhaps
have been the head of a portion of the Aequians. The boun-
dary between the Aequians and Romans ceased to be at
Praeneste, and extended beyond it. Political relations in the
ancient world change with extraordinary rapidity, as is most
manifest in xVrcadia, where the three principal tribes are in the
end completely lost sight of The union of Latium was dis-
solved, and a portion of the Latins along with Velitrae and
Antium rose against Rome, and so also did Praeneste with a
portion of the Aequians. The period of Rome's supremacy
was gone, Yeii alone was a permanent gain, and the Romans
now admitted Etruscan places, which had already possessed
the franchise without the suffrage, to the full privilege of citi-
zens, and formed them into four new tribes, the niimber of
which thus became twenty- five. Livy erroneously states, that
the new tribes were forjncd of those who revolted to Rome in
the earlier wars: this is impossible, for the Romans always
formed their new tribes of a much larccr number of individuals
than was contained in the ancient ones, since it was only in
this manner that they could truly unite with them, and yet
278 TRADITION CONCERNING THILOTIS.
that the influence of the new tribes in the assembly might be
limited, althoug-h individually all tribesmen were on a footing
of perfect equality. I for my part am convinced that all these
new tribes had formerly been sovereign towns with their terri-
tories. The territories of Veil, Capena, Vulsinii and others,
undoubtedly acted the part of mere spectators in the wars of
theiY ruling towns, and surrendered to the Komans as soon as
they appeared, without any resistance, because to whatever
state they belonged their condition wasj equally good or bad :
many also were neutral, as under similar circumstances we see
was the case, in the war between Spain and the Low Countries,
with the towns of Brabant, which paid taxes to both the belli-
gerent powers that they might remain unattacked. By the
destruction of a town its territory became subject to Rome, and
it was unquestionably to these people that Rome now granted
the full franchise, and thus recruited the reduced number of
her citizens. The Etruscan cities undoubtedly maintained a
very passive attitude during this change. Rome was wise
enough to grant to her new subjects the full plebeian franchise:
her case was like that of Jerusalem when Ezra and Nehemiah
returned from Babylon and rebuilt the city.
Plutarch and Macrobius mention a tradition respecting the
reduced state of Rome, which, however, as reported by them,
seems to be unhistorical. The city was yet without walls,
when some of the neighbouring and very insignificant places,
such as Fidenae and Ficulea appeared with their armies, and
compelled the Romans to give hostages. But the hostages,
instead of being noble virgins, were female servants ; and their
leader, a Greek slave named Philotis, imitated the example of
Judith, for while the troops were celebrating their unwonted
success, and were intoxicated, she gave a signal to the Romans
with a torch, whereupon they rushed forth and annihilated
their enemies. This event was placed in the month of Quinc-
tllls, consequently four months after the evacuation of the
city; and the tradition shews at all events how much Rome
was conceived to have been reduced.
After tlie formation of the four new tribes Rome had again
an extensive territory, which formed the basis of her recovery.
At the end of this period, affairs on the left bank of the Tiber
continued to be in the same state of dissolution as before. On
the right bank all the territory belonged to Rome as far as
M. MANLIUS. 279
Sutriiim and Nepet, which were frontier fortresses^ and beyond
which the Ciminian forest was allowed to grow wild for the
purpose of protection. Whenever ager jmhlicus is mentioned
at this time, it must be conceived to have been almost exclu-
sively in those districts. The relation of isopolity probably
existed only with the nearest Latin places, Tusculum, Lanu-
viuni, and Aricia. I cannot here relate to you all the events
of that period ; the detail would be entirely useless. Lectures
like the present should only dwell upon events which are
important in themselves and in their consequences. Livy's
case was different since he wrote for his own countrymen.
Of far more importance to us are the events which occurred
in Rome itself. Avarice and usury were among the darling
sins of the Romans; and the less they were checked, the more
oppressive they became. Had the system of usury not been
so excessive, the revolution which now beo-an would have
been accompanied with less violence. A few years after the
evacuation of the city, the distress was so great that Livy was
ashamed to reveal it to the world, perhaps even to himself
]\I. Manlius rose to protect the unhappy. He does not derive
his name Capitolinus from having saved the Capitol, but
because he lived there; for T. Manlius, probably his father,
appears in the Fasti with this name twenty years earlier.
The saving of the Capitol was not the only brilliant feat per-
formed by Manlius. He was acknowledged to be one of the
most illustrious military heroes ; and the fact of his name not
being mentioned in the Fasti throws light upon his position.
He is universally said to have had consilia regni affedandi,
but Livy states that the annals contained no evidence to sup-
port this charge, except that meetings were held in his house,
and that benefits had been conferred by him upon the plebcs.
It may be that he was indignant at the ruling party, because
he had not been rewarded for his service; but it is also
possible that his great soul was stirred up by ungovernable
ambition, and that he indulged in the hope of rewarding him-
self with a crown. All his actions were of a kind which the
purest and most benevolent mind might have suggested with-
out being under the influence of ambition. Citizens were
every day assigned to their creditors as slaves for debt. Man-
lius paid for them what they owed, especially for old soldiers,
and by the sacrifice of his whole property he restored them to
280 IMPRUDENCE OF THE PATRICIANS.
their families. He is also said to have accused the patricians
of having appropriated to themselves the money which had
been recovered from the Gauls. This suspicion must have
arisen from the imposition of the tax for the purpose of
restoring the gold which had been paid to the Gauls, since
the levying of a tax under such circumstances, though it was
destined for the gods, was not free from harshness and fanati-
cism. ]\Ianlius, who thus gained immense popularity, became
the object of the greatest hatred to the riding body. Instead
of profiting by his hint and relieving the distress, the patri-
cians obstinately insisted on their rights, and thus arose a
contest between beneficent ambition on the one hand, and the
most stubborn oligarchy on the other, as in Ireland in the
year 1822, where, when the cattle were bled, the poor fought
for the blood in order to satisfy their hunger, and where the
landlords nevertheless insisted on their le^'al claims. The
natural consequence was a very general feeling, that any
change would be better than such a government, and that
Maulius as a usurper might be as useful as many a Greek
tyrant. This state of things undoubtedly became very danger-
ous. When a government is in a bad course, and vinwilling
to retrace its stej^s, it drives men to sin, and has much to
answer for before God and man. The Roman government
was in this predicament, and ordered Manlius to be arrested ;
but this led to nothing, for a general sympathy manifested
itself for him, who until then had committed no crime. The
plebes put on mourning, and assembled in crowds at the gate
of his dungeon. Tlie government therefore was obliged to
set him free. It had acted rashly, and as ]\Ianlius was now
provoked, it thought that he was sure to take wrong steps,
and that it would thus obtain an opportunity of crushing him.
Manlius had a difficult part to act. Under such circumstances
men often begin their career with the purest intentions, but
gradually fall into frightful aberrations. I believe that Man-
lius did not start with the idea of making himself the tyrant
of his country; but when the men of his own order reviled
him, and misinterpreted his pure intentions, the germs of
his actions became poisoned, and this might lead him to 'the
detremination to set himself up as tyrant; but no evidence of
that supposition is to be found. The tumiilt in the mean
time increased, and Manlius, enraged, and proud because he
DEATH OF 3IANLIUS. 281
had conquered, demanded that a portion of the domain land
should be sold, and that the produce should be employed in
paying the debts of the poor : a fair demand, as the state was
the proprietor of the domain land. But the oligarchs were
bent upon reserving the possession of it for themselves, and
rejoiced at the wretchedness of the plebeians. The distress
rendered the dependence of the plebeians very great. So long
as the 'praefectus iirbi had it in his power to assign a debtor to
his creditor, every man was in danger of losing his freedom.
It may be that dangerous thoughts gained from day to day
greater ascendancy over the mind of IManlius, and thus at
last the patricians ventured to accuse him. Two tribunes
declared for the senate; and according to Zonaras, Camillus
was appointed dictator for the occasion. Under the terrors of
the dictatorship, Manlius was summoned before the assembly
of the centuries, but no one dared to imprison him again. On
giving security, he was allowed to retain the enjoyment of his
liberty; and on the appointed day he appeared and defended
himself, which is the strongest argument for his innocence,
since he might have withdrawn from the city. He referred
to his great military achievements and services as a proof of
his sentiments; he brought forward the spoils of thirty enemies
whom he had slain, and forty marks of honour which he had
received in war; he appealed to the citizens whom he had
saved, and among them even to the magister equitum ; he
pointed to the Capitol, which could be seen from the Campus
]\Iartius — and the centuries acquitted him. But the oligarchy
was not satisfied with this, and the senate summoned him
before the curies {concilium, jwpuli), who as his peers were
to try his case in the Petclinian grove, a fact which Livy and
all his followers have misunderstood. As the concilium populi
is rarely mentioned, Livy thought of a tribunician accusation;
but at tlie same time he cannot deny that the patrician duum-
viri were his accusers. The meeting was in the Petelinian
grove, not because the Capitol could not be seen from that
spot, but because his enemies felt an aversion to pronouncing
the sentence of death in the city, and yet were obliged to
meet in a consecrated place. IManlius was condemned and
thrown down the Tarpcian rock. This catastrophe, like the
death of Sp. Cassius, produced for a few years a death-like
stillness at Rome; but the patricians had nevertheless to atone
282 C. LICINIUS AND L. SEXTIUS.
for tKeir crime, as was always the case, although the full
vengeance did not fall upon them, for down to the time of
C. Gracchus, who called the murderers of his brother to
account S the rulers who committed such a crime were not
made personally responsible for it ; and to this forbearance
Rome owed the preservation of her liberty. From the blood
of Manlius arose men, whose object was not to avenge him,
but to accomplish what he had desii'ed. Licinius and Sextius
had perhaps (nay probably) been his friends, and his ignomi-
nious death gave them courage to defy all dangers in accom-
plishing their great work. Inspired by his example, they
performed their task without shedding one drop of blood.
It was about ten or eleven years after the destruction of the
city, that two tribunes of the people, C. Licinius, and
L. Sextius, placed themselves at the head of their order, with a
firm determination to place at length the relation of the two
orders on a just footing: it was not their intention that the
patricians, as a distinct order, should perish, but the plebeians
were to stand by their side with equal rights, and the state,
according to the original idea, was to be a double state, of two
perfectly equal communities. The military tribunes, according
to our authorities, were again nearly always patricians, which
is inconceivable: something must be wanting here; but the
excerpts De Sententiis from Dion Cassius, unfortunately contain
nothing about this period. The patricians were satisfied Avith
the military tribuneship, and did not Avant any consuls. There
is a foolish story explaining the motive that induced Licinius
to come forward in this manner; but it was easy for Beaufort
to shew that it is nothing but a fiction. j\I. Fabius Ambustus
is said to have had two daughters, the one married to the
patrician Su.lpicius, and the other to C. Licinius. Sulpicius
was military tribune, and as usual returned home with the lie-
tors; the younger sister was staying with the elder, and being
frightened by the noise, was ridiculed by her sister, who said
that it was natural to be sure that the noise should alarm her,
since she was married to a man who could never attain to this
honour. Beaufort has justly remarked, that the children of
' Mu-abcau said at Marseilles in the year 1789, that C. Gracchus called to
hc.avcn to avenge the Wood of his brother, and that out of that blood M.^rius
arose; but Gracchus was an innocent and holy man, while Marius was a
tyrant. — N.
THE LICINIAN LAWS. 283
M. Fabiiis Ambitstus could not possibly be unacquainted with
this mark of honour, and it is an equally unhistorical state-
ment, that the yovmger Fabia entreated her father and hus-
band to procure it for her also, inasmuch as the mihtary tri-
buneship was ^open to the plebeians as much as to the patri-
cians, and M. Fabius Ambustus himself afterwards appears
among those who lent a helping hand in the attempt to over-
turn the Licinian laws. The w^iole story is a miserable piece
of scandal, invented by a party which was annoyed at the suc-
cess of the plans of its opponents. The motives of men are
often really despicable, but there is no reason for coming to
such a conclusion generally, and we ought not to trace every
thing great to mean and contemptible motives. Livy merely
copied the tale from others, and in his haste and want of a
vivid conception of the circmnstances, he wrote it down, not
intending to represent it as a real history, but only as a pretty
story : his soul was pure and noble, and although his patrician
predilections sometimes lead him astray, he nevertheless speaks
truly when he says in his preface, that he was impelled by an
irresistible power to search after that which was great in the
early times.
But whatever may have been the occasion, the object was
plain enough, namely to remove the existing abuses by a
thorough reform. The reform proposed by Licinius and
Sextius had two great ends; and to relieve the momentary
distress was their third object. The first bill which they
brought forward, ordained that no more military tribimes
should be elected, but consuls, one of whom should necessarily
be a plebeian. The patricians, notwithstanding their small
numbers, were still predominant in the government, and for a
long time endeavoured to prevent the passing of the bill, until
in the end the matter was so managed that all their intrigues
became useless: these very intrigues rendered it necessary to
bring forward the bill in its absolute form. The tribunes
could not have said that the worthiest should be elected from
the two orders, for as the curies still had to sanction the
elected magistrate, andcovdd refuse their sanction to a plebeian,
it was necessary to fix the appointment of one plebeian as
indispensable. The division, moreover, was important for the
patricians themselves, for as soon as the plebeians acquired
power in the senate, they would have elected two men from
284 USURY ABOLISHED.
their own order. It was not till two hundred years later, that
the plebeians actually acquired this preponderance, when the
extreme diminution in the number of patricians became sensi-
bly apparent, the patrician being to the plebeian nobility in the
ratio of one to thirty. The second law established the prin-
ciple that the plebeians should have a share in the possession
of the ager puhlicus, as well as the patricians, and that, in ac-
cordance with the Cassian law, a portion of it should be given
to them in full ownership, to indemnify them for the past; in
future it was to be a rule that one part of it should always be
assigned to the patricians as their possession, and another be
distributed among the plebeians as their real property. No
individual was to possess more than 500 jugera; the surplus
was to be divided among the plebes in lots of seven jugera, and
no one was to be allowed to keep more than a certain number
of cattle on the common pasture, during the summer in the
mountains, and during the winter in the meadows near the
city. The third bill contained the temporary measure regard-
ing the debts of the plebeians : the interest which had been
added to the capital was to be cancelled, and the rest was to be
paid back by three annual instalments, each year being reck-
oned at ten months, and undoubtedly without interest. This
was indeed something like a general bankruptcy; but the
matter could not be settled otherwise, and the creditors had
assuredly made sufficiently large profits by their former usut}'.
The tribunes in this case did for individuals, what Sully, after
the unfortunate times of the League did for the state, in di-
minishing the amount of debt: he cancelled the usurious
interest already paid, and allowed the remaining capital to
stand at the ordinary rate of interest. It was in consecpience
of this violent measure that France reached its high state of
prosperity under Louis XIII, while previously the farmers of
finance and the usurers had alone fattened upon the marrow of
the nation. There is no doubt that at Rome too, it was only
the worst individuals that suffered by the law: a gentler
remedy would have been desirable, but none was to be found,
and without some remedy the state would have perished.
The patricians not only opposed these rogations with a fixed
determination not to yield, but they also exerted all their in-
iluence at the elections, in order that the tribunes, Avho for ten
years were re-elected year after year, might have opponents in
INTERREGES. 285
tlieir own college. The whole history of these occurrences is
buried in utter darkness, and we cannot say from what quarter
the opposition came, nor wherein the difficidty lay. Whether
the tribunes themselves formed the opposition, or whether the
patricians contrived to produce indifference and hostility among
the commonalty, or whether the laws were passed as rogations
by the centuries, so that only the senate and the curies refused
their sanction, — all these are questions which we cannot answer,
but the state of things was probably different at different
times.
LECTUKE XXXIV.
Our authorities state that the tribunes Licinius and Scxtius,
for the purpose of carrying their laws, opposed the election of
new magistrates with such perseverance, that for five, or ac-
cording to others for six years, no curule magistrates were
elected. This is one of those accounts which we may often
read, without being able at first to believe that they can be
inventions; in all the Fasti we find five years, during which
neither consuls nor military tribimes are mentioned, but only
the tribunes of the plcbes, Licinius and Sextius; their colleagues,
Avho surely should have been recorded along with them, are
not named. Such also was the case in Junius Gracchanus,
from whom the statement was adopted by Joannes Lydus, but
it is nevertheless false. There is no doubt that the tribunes
for a time stopped the election of curule magistrates, whereby
the Fasti were thrown into disorder; but what would have
been the confusion, if this had happened for five successive
years! Interrcges were indeed sufficient for times of peace,
but they could not have led an army into the field : and would
the neighbours of Rome have left her undisturbed during such
a state of internal dissolution? The story appears to have arisen
in the first place from the certain knowledge that during the
whole struggle the tribunes actually opposed the elections, and
pelded only at times of the most urgent necessity, when a war
absolutely demanded the appointment of curule magistratos;
286 DICTATORSHIPS.
the periods tlierefore during which there were no magistrates
were always short, the elections being only put off. In the
second place, the ancients imagined that Rome was taken by
the Gauls, in the archonship of Pyrgion^, Olymp. 98. 1, as
they read in Timaeus, whose statement they regarded as au-
thentic, not considering that his knowledge of the fact was not
as certain as his statement was positive. Fabius wrote his work
fifty Olympiads later, Olymp. 148. 1=a.u. 565 according to
Cato ; he knew very well how people then reckoned in Greece,
and he also knew that two hundred years previously Rome had
been taken by the Gauls : he accordingly calculated backwards,
but the Fasti did not agree, six or seven years being wanting
between the taking of Rome and the Licinian rogations ; some
time might be occupied by the interreges, who had supplied
the place of consuls, but all the years could not be filled up in
this manner. After the Gallic calamity, the consuls were
elected on the kalends of Quinctilis, and in his time, perhaps
on the kalends or ides of Augustus, for the elections always took
place on one of these two days of a month ; by this means the
calculation of the years changed its starting point. The result
is, that what is senseless, is also untrue, and the Gallic conquest
must be placed considerably, at least four years, later than the
date usually assigned to it. Now, the first authors who pro-
mulgated our account, certainly did not mean to say that,
during five years, the tribunes were the only magistracy : they
combined the Greek date and the Roman statements, but did
not know how to find their way in the Fasti, — hence, in the
Fasti of Varro, dictatorships are inserted, which are said to
have lasted for a whole year, but they likewise are wrong;
they arose merely from the shifting of the consular years; —
the ancient authors then went beyond the restoration of the
consulship in A.U. 388, fixed there the impossible anarchy of
five or six years, and inserted the tribunes of the people, to
whom however, instead of ten years, they assigned far too
many. The interpolator found in the Fasti the title t7-ibuni,'with.-
out any further attribute to indicate the curule magistrates, and
therefrom he inferred the opposition to the elections, which
Livy has spun out so much.
' 2u/U(/)wcerToi ffxeSbj' vno nivruv, says Dionysiiis; this ffXfSb proves that all
were not agreed, and I believe that the excellent Cincius assigned it to n diffe-
rent year, perhaps to Olymp. 99. 1 or 2. — N.
FEAR OF CIVIL WAR. 287
There can be no doubt that during these contests the Roman
magistrates were always miUtary tribunes, and ahnost invari-
ably patricians, on one occasion only half their number con-
sisted of plebeians, and the presidents at the elections generally
refused to accept any votes for plebeian candidates. The ex-
asperation of the people rose from day to day, and went so far
that in the end the outbreak of a civil war was feared. Under
the dictatorship of Manlius the tribunes carried a law, which
they had perhaps proposed along with others, that half the
decemvirs, who were entrusted with the keeping of the Sibyl-
line books, should be elected from the plebeians, in order to
prevent false assertions on the part of the patricians respecting
the prodigies. Another great advantage was gained by the
dictator P. JManlius raising a cousin of the tribune Licinius to
the office of magister equitum : this was certainly in accordance
with the ancient custom, for the plebeians too had iheix equites,
and Brutus in his time had been tribunus celerum. Wlien none
of the tribunes made any further opposition, and the tribes had
passed the rogation of Licinius, matters came to extremities,
because the senate, consisting almost entirely of patricians, re-
fused to give its sanction. The commonalty shewed much less
obstinacy in endeavouring to carry the law respecting the con-
sulship, which was of the highest importance to the plebeian
nobility, than in passing the other laws. The senate here
again tried its old tactics, attempting to get out of its difficul-
ties by temporary concessions. But Dion Cassius relates that
the tribunes of the people, in order to carry all their laws
at once, combined them in one bill, and Licinius is reported to
have said, that if they would not eat, neither should they
drink.
In all free states there are families in which certain political
views and principles are hereditary, for there a man is born in
a political party as he is born in a particular church. Roman
history furnishes many examples of this kind: the first tribune
of the plebes was a Licinius; a Licinius was the first who led
the people in their insurrection on the Sacred Mount ; and 420
years later it was again a Licinius, who after the death of Sulla
vindicated the rights of the tribuneship, so that the Licinii
always remained the foremost among the plebeian families.
The same observation may be made in regard to tlie Publi-
lii and Sicinii. It may at first seem a strange limitation of
288 CAMILLUS DICTATOR.
individual freedom to be thus dependent on the principles of
one's forefathers, as if it were an external obligation, but a little
experience shews that it is the foundation of the firmness and
strength of a nation. But to return to our narrative : Licinius
then combines his various laws that all might stand or fall at
once. Nothing is more glorious in Roman history than that
the commonalty though far superior to their opponents in
strength and numbers bore their machinations with the greatest
composure and patience and without committing any illegal
act, although the struggle lasted for a series of years.
The aged Camillus — he was now eighty years old — was ap-
pointed dictator : his blood had not yet been cooled, the ancient
party-spirit and animosity still survived in him, and when
called upon by his order he fancied he could do what was in
reality impossible. The plebeians did not dare to resist the
dictator, but with extreme wisdom resolved that if Camillus as
dictator should undertake anything unlawful against them,
they would accuse him after the expiration of his office and
propose that he should be fined 500,000 asses. This declara-
tion paralysed Camillus, and the senate was afraid to let matters
come to extremities. Camillus found that he could do no more
than Cincinnatus ninety years before,who had to avenge a dis-
graced son. The patricians began to reflect, and Camillus
himself advising them to yield, made a vow that he would
build a temple of Concord if he should succeed in reconcilinrr
the two orders. This temple was consecrated though not till
after the death of the great man. The Romans of a later time
thought its ancient magnificence too mean; in the reign of
Augustus its place was supplied by another, and Trajan built
a still more magnificent one instead of the second. Down to
the year 1817 its site was sought for in a wrong place: it stood
in a corner below the Salita which leads from the arch of Sep-
timius Severus to the Capitol; several votive tablets were
found there behind the church of S. Servius, which Pope Cle-
ment VII. erected on the site of a more ancient church. The
pillars of the later temple were of Phrygian marble, wrought
Avith extraordinary elegance. Trajan loved to dwell in past
ages: he coined Roman denarii, bearing on one side his own
head and on the reverse the emblems of great families which
had become extinct (for in the earlier times the rijiht of coininff
was not an exclusive privilege of the state) : and there still
THE PKAETORSniP. 289
exist a considerable number of these nummi rcstituti. It was
the same feeling which prompted him to restore the ancient
temple of Concord, for the spot on which the golden age of
Rome had begun was sacred to him as it was to his friends
Pliny and Tacitus. Its site is now clear of rubbish and is a
classical spot in Roman topography, — the symbol of a free and
equal constitution.
The reconciliation was brought about in this manner: it was
agreed that one of the consuls shovdd be a plebeian and the
other a patrician; the ancient consulship, however, such as it
had existed previously to the decemvirate, was not to be I'e-
stored, but the praefect of the city was to be a permanent and
new curule magistrate under the name o^pj'aetor wbanus.^ This
praefectura urbis had existed even before the decemviral con-
stitution, and was to have received a different character in that
constitution; there were now many reasons for the patricians
not allowing it to fall into the hands of the plebeians, because
the whole possession of the agei^ publicus was dependent upon
it. If for example a father bequeathed 400 jugcra to his son,
who already possessed 400 j ugera, a conscientious praetor might
take from him the 300 above the legal quantity; but if a
praetor was determined to render the law inelFectual, he
assigned the bequest to the son and would not listen to the
charge that he already possessed more than the law allowed.
In addition to this, it must be remembered that the laws were
still under the superintendence of the pontiifs, and that accord-
ingly the patricians, who alone were eligible to the pontificate,
might say that they were exclusively entitled to be invested
with the praetorship. Another no less important right of the
praetor was that of appointing the judices. The centum viri,
who were elected by the tribes, had to decide in questions of
property, bvit all criminal cases were brought before the praetor.
When the crime was a delictum maiiifestum, the perpetrator
was dragged before his tribunal obtorto culfo, and the praetor
at once determined the punishment; but when the matter was
disputed, the praetor delegated a judex, and directed him to
decide the case in this or that manner according to the result
of the investigation ; there is no doubt that he himself also
might act as judex, but he alone could not possibly have
- This name was not devised to distinguish him from the pnicfor pere(jri»iis,
a point in which I myself was formerly mistaken as well as many others. — N.
A'OL. I. U
290 THE CUEULE AEDILES.
manan-ed all the cases tKat were brought before lilm. These
judices or judges, then and for a long time afterwards, were
chosen from among the senators; and hence it was of great
consequence to the patricians to reserve for themselves the
exclusive right to the praetorship. This circumstance also
shews the importance of the measure brought forward by Grac-
chus. The patricians retained the possession of the praetorship
for thirty-two years; but when a great portion of the ager
puhlicus had passed into the hands of the plebeians, when con-
sequently the praetor changed his character, commanded armies,
and often perfonned the functions of a consul, the office could
no longer be withheld from the plebeians. It should, more-
over, be observed that the praetor was called the colleague of
the consuls and that he had six lictors, as the two consuls
together had twelve.
It is flirther mentioned that the curule aediles were then
for the first time appointed for the purpose of conducting the
public games ; the plebeian aediles are said to have refused to
give expensive games for the celebration of the peace, and as
some patrician youths generously undertook to do so, the new
office is stated to have been instituted to honour them. Even
in the first edition of my Roman history I shewed the folly of
this opinion; the curule aediles were neither more nor less than
what the ancient qiiaestores pairicidii had been : they brought
public accusations before the popular courts in cases of poison,
sorcery, and the like. Their jurisdiction was quite different
from that of the praetors, and when the law had not fixed a
particular punishment for a crime, they determined the punish-
ment according to the nature of the offence. On this subject
the ancients entertained different notions from ourselves. I
know the advantages of our own times, and he whose soul is
completely absorbed in one period is not fit for any other. A
person who looks with fondness upon past ages and would fain
recall them, is not a homo gravis, but is diseased in his mind.
I would rather see a man preferring the present to the past;
but the legislative conceit of our age is very injurious, for
legislators imagine that they can determine everything. I was
once present in a country when the discovery was made that
there existed a conspiracy of men who dug up corpses from
their graves after they had been buried for many years, and
as the law had made no provision for such a crime the monsters
THE PLEBEIAN AEDILES. 291
escaped with impunity. One year after the institution of the
curule aedileship the plebeians gained access to it also, and for
a period of 130 years there were alternately one year two pa-
trician, and the next, two plebeian aediles. The ludi Romani
were increased by a fourth day for the plebeians, who had
before had their own games. From the statements made by
Dionysius after Fabius at the end of his seventh book, it is clear
that until the time to which those statements refer, the state
had annually provided a large sura of money to defray the
expenses of those games, but that in consequence of the unfor-
tunate events in the first Punic war, the expenses were thrown
upon individual citizens. The games were thenceforward
given at the expense of individuals, and the cumle aedileship
became a liturgy in the Greek sense : the aediles obtained access
to all the great offices, but in return they were obliged to
defray out of their own means the expenses of the games.
The plebeian aediles were a general Latin magistracy, as is
evident from the fact of their being mentioned as existing in
Latin towns; but we cannot say whether the curule aedileship
had existed before as such a local magistracy among the pa-
tricians, or whether it was then newly created. These cirrule
aediles have hitherto always been considered as a sort of police
magistracy; it is true, to some extent they were so, and in so
far, they competed with the plebeian aediles; but their real
office did not consist in the superintendence of the corn trade,
public buildings and the like, in which they cannot be distin-
guished from the plebeian aediles, but they were the ancient
quaestures parricidii who instituted their inquisitions before the
people, as I have proved by several examples. I suspect that
the triumviri copitales were a detached branch of the aedilician
power. The aediles had no lictors and no imperium. Now,
how did it happen that these new magistrates were elected in
the comitia tributa ? It seems probable that at first they were
elected alternately by the comitia tributa and curiota, and that
the comitia which did not elect had to sanction the election;
but when the j\Iaenian law reduced the sanction of the curies
to a mere matter of form, the election was altogether trans-
ferred to the tribes. The inferior magistrates, such as the
triumviri monetales, quatuorviri and others, were not instituted
till after the Hortcnsian and Maenian laws, when the curies
had ceased to meet, and the election was altogether transferred
U 2
292 THE TRIUMVIRS.
to the tribes. As regards the praetor, there can be no doubt
that, like the consuls, he was elected by the centuries; for it is
said that he was elected iisdem auspiciis, and tlie auspices were
taken only for the comitia of the centuries and curies. Thus
the few points which are known help us in explaining what is
mysterious in the history of the Roman constitution.
LECTURE XXXV.
According to Joannes Lydus (that is, according to Graccha-
nus), the government at the close of these disturbances was for
a time in the hands of triumvirs. I shall endeavour to explain
this elsewhere, but the fact itself is quite credible. The cir-
cumstance that Varro in his work inscribed to Pompey, De
Senatu habendo, mentioned the triumviri reipuhlicae constituendae
among those who had the right to convoke the senate, is a
strong argument in favour of it: the later triumvirs probably
adopted the title witli reference to this early magistracy. I
will however not deny that the first military tribunes were
likewise called triumviri reipuhlicae constituendae in the ancient
records.
When the Licinian laws were passed and the first plebeian
consul had been elected, circumstances arose which threatened
to throw everything back again into confusion, for the patri-
cians refused to sanction the plebeian consul. It was only
with great difficulty that matters were settled: the patricians
in the end yielded and recognised L. Sextius as plebeian consul.
In this manner the lawful and necessary revolution was brought
to a close: it had proceeded like the normal changes in the
human body when a yoiith passes into the age of manhood.
We cannot wonder that the peace was not cordially meant; the
patricians yielded only to necessity, and with the firm deter-
mination to recover what was lost as soon as an opportunity
should oflTer. The struggle was renewed about eleven years
later, in A.U, 399 according to the Catonian era which is adopted
by Livy also ' ; the patricians again succeeded in obtaining
' Chronology is here very uncertain on account of the shifting of the time at
v.liich the magistrates enterctl upon tlifir olliie ; it was not till the time of the
J'linic wars tliat the consuls regularly entered upon their oflice in spring, and
during the latter perio I of the republic on tlie first of January. — N.
INVASION OF THE SENONIAN GAULS. 293
possession of both places in the consulship, and continued the
contest until A.U. 413, usurping during more than one third of
that period the consulship for themselves exclusively. But in
the end they were obliged to yield with disgrace, and during the
struggle itself tliey had to make concessions to the plebeians,
which the latter would not have demanded with such vehe-
mence, if the peace had been honestly observed.
The beginning of the period which now opens is marked by
very few events; it may be, as Livy says, that no wars were
carried on, in order not to give the plebeian consul any oppor-
tunity of distinguishing himself, but it is also possible that
this is merely a conjecture of his. All tlie care of the Romans
was directed to their internal affairs, for it is natural to suppose
that the innumerable arranciements which the Licinian law
rendered necessary engrossed all their attention. The whole
of the ager publicus had to be measured and divided, a
commission was engaged in regulating everything connected
with the debts, and a variety of other business had to be
settled. The general assignment of land to the plebeians
must be regarded as the cause of the rebuilding of the city.
We shall not easily find so speedy a recovery in history, for
Rome appears regenerated, although almost every year is
marked by wars: a part of the debts remained, and the law
of nexum was not abolished, but it became less and less oppres-
sive. The changes produced by the Licinian laws must have
been much more extensive than we are aware, and the chest of
the patricians now probably became the common treasury of
the republic. The time was outwardly one of tranquillity, the
Latins, separated from Rome, lived in peace, and none but
isolated towns, such as Tibur and Praeneste were hostile, and
that more from mistrust than from any other special reason.
The Tarquinians were the only enemies that really threatened
Rome. In the year A.u. 393, thirty years after the first inva-
sion, however, there appeared a new enemy at a distance, the
Senonian Gauls. Whatever is said of an earlier appearance of
the Gauls is contradicted by Polybius, who mentions all their
expeditions, and calls this one the first subsequent to the de-
struction of Rome. It appears that after that event the Gauls
marched into Apulia, and there concluded a treaty with
Dionysius of Syracuse; after plundering the country they
returned to their own homes, the modern Romagna and
294 MANLIUS TORQUATUS.
Urbino. But a new host came across the Alps and advanced
as far as the Anio. We must not suppose those Gauls to have
been very warlike when they had the means of a peaceable
existence. On the Anio, Manlius Torquatus is said to have
fouirht in sins-le combat with a Gaul and to have taken from
him a golden chain: this seems to be historically established,
and we have no reason to consider it as a fable ; a great battle
was not fought there, and the Romans though prepared were
now on the alert and cautious. The Gauls then fixed them-
selves in those parts, took possession of the Alban mount
and the hills of Latium, and sallying thence laid waste the
Latin territory; they advanced beyond Tivoli*^ into Campania,
nay, according to one account, even as far as Apulia; they
must consequently have subdued the Samnites, and have
marched through their long and narrow territory, as the
Romans did afterwards.
These occurrences, like the Yolscian war a hundred years
before, were followed by consequences which were highly
advantageous for Rome. The Romans themselves, as well as
the Latins and Hernicans, arrived at the conviction that by
separation they were exposing themselves to great danger.
There was no hostility between the Romans and Latins, but
between the Romans and Hernicans there was an open war, in
which the Romans may have taken the strong town of
Ferentiuum: the war ended in a restoration of the ancient
relation. The statement that the Hernicans surrendered, is
false, for even half a century later they continued to receive
one third of the booty, or a compensation in money until C.
Marcius subdued them. The Latins and Hernicans united
with Rome, and a new state was formed, as Livy relates in
two passages'' without rccognizhig the connection. There is
every appearance that the Latins did not yet form a compact
state : it was impossible for them to recover the position which
they had formerly occupied, since a great many of their towns
had been destroyed by the Acquians and Volscians or by the
' In the neighbom-hood of Tivoli, I have diseovercd traces of several towns
whicli are not generally known, and wliich may have been destroyed at that
time. Tliey arc bnilt upon hills in the form of si^uares and exhibit no traces of
having been surrounded by walls. They shew how small were the towns, which
were then scattered over Italy, tlicy niny have contained about fifty houses. — N.
' Probably vii. 12 and viii. (> and 8 ; but there are also some other passages
in wliich this is alluded to. — Ed.
NEW LATIN CONFEDERACY. 295
Gauls. But the Yolscians, their former enemies, were now
likewise broken up into several states; the Antiatans seem to
have stood by themselves, while other Volscian towns united
themselves with Latium ; they felt an urgent need of joining
some other state, as they were hard pressed by the Samnites
who were makmg conquests on the Upper Liris, had taken
Fregellae, and remained in the possession of Casinum. Thus
a new Latin confederacy was formed, which was joined by the
Latin colonies and a part of the Volscians, for the Romans
seem to have renounced all claims to supremacy over the
Latin colonies; and Sutrium and Nepet on the left bank of
the Tiber likewise joined the Latin league. Forty-seven
tribes, it is said, took part in the sacrifice on the Alban mount:
a statement which must be referred to this time when Latiiira
stood by the side of Rome as a powerful state. Another
portion of the Volscians was admitted to the Roman franchise,
apparently to form a counterpoise to Latium, for two new
tribes, situated on the Volscian frontier were formed, just as in
the treaty of Spurius Cassius, the Latins had ceded to the
Romans the Crustuminian territory. The year A.U. 397 is
thus remarkable for the restoration of the ancient relation
between Rome, Latium, and the Hernicans. Festus, in the
article Praetor ad portam, which is derived from Cincius, speaks
as if the Romans had always been in an equal alliance^ with
the Latins ever since the fall of Alba. This is correct in
regard to the periods from the peace of Sp. Cassius down to
the year A.u. 290, and from A.u. 397 down to the consulship
of Decius ]\lus, but the intervening period is overlooked.
Cincius undoubtedly had the correct statement, but was pro-
bably misunderstood by Verrius Flaccus. The different times
must here be very carefully distinguished ; 1 myself have been
in error for many a year in regard to this point.^ A Roman
and a Latin impcrator had in alternate years the command of
the imited armies, he offered the sacrifice on the Capitol at
Rome, and was saluted at the gate of the city.
* The triumph on the Albiin mount -which is fu-st mentioned in the case of
Papirius Maso, after the first Piiiiic war, is commonly regarded as an iuliitrary
act of the generals, to whom the triumph at Eome was refused: but it assuredly
was a recollection of the ancient usage, according to which the Latin coumiander
triumphed on tlic Alban mount, and the Eoman commander at Rome. At the
time when there were no Latin generals, the impcrator. as general of the ;dlies
assumed the triumi)h on the Alban Mount, when the honour was refused to him
at Rome. — N.
296 ALLIANCE WITH THE SAMNITES.
The new alliance of the three states undoubtedly arose from
a fear of the Gauls who were very near, thovigh they did not
appear on the Tiber that year. It would be of no advantage
to relate here the details of the war, you may read it in Livy,
whose work you cannot study too m\ich, both as scholars and
as men who seek and love that which is beautiful. His faults,
which we cannot deny, are like the faults of a bosom friend
which we must know but towards which we ought not to be
unjust, and which ought not to disturb our feelings. It was
a fearful time for the Eomans; the struggle with the Gauls
continued till A.U. 406 and 407 ; and Latium and Campania
more particularly were for thirteen or fourteen years continu-
ally ravaged by the barbarians. On one occasion they appeared
at the Colline gate: the Komans successfully resisted them, or
the fight remained at least undecided ; it was the same spot
where afterwards Sulla defeated the Samnites, and is now
within the city. It is a continuation of the Quirinal hill
which slopes downwards; on the left side there is a deep
valley, and where the Quirinal comes down to the plain, other
hills again arise, over which run the walls of the city : it was
undoubtedly on these latter hills that the Gauls and Samnites
were encamped. Whoever of you has the happiness to visit
Borne may heighten it by making himself acquainted with
these localities.
One of the changes which were brought about by this new
alliance with the Latins, is expressly mentioned by Livy, and
was, that New Latium was governed by two praetors^ whereas
Ancient Latium had been governed by a dictator, as we know
from Cato (in Priscian). An alliance between the liomans
and Samnites, which is likewise mentioned by Livy, belongs
either to this or to a somewhat later time. We may indeed
suspect that such connections existed between the Samnites
and Romans even at an earlier period; but we cannot assert it
with certainty, in consequence of the vagueness of a statement
in Fcstus in the article Numerius. According to this passage,
one of the Fabii, who after the battle on the Cremera was sent
as a hostage to the Gauls, married the daughter of a Samnite
of Beneventum. Now the connubium could not have existed
Avithout treaties. It is, however, possible, that this relation
existed only between the Sabincs and Romans, and that the
former transferred it to their Samnite colonics. There may
HOSTILITY OF THE TIBURTINES. 297
have been two motives for forming such an alliance. If fear
of the Gauls led to it, it must have been concluded between
the second and the third expedition of the Gauls, that is,
between the one to the Anio and the one to the Alban moimt;
but according to a very probable conjecture, the alliance may
have been the consequence of a jealousy of the power of
Latium; for the latter country, by the addition of Volscians
and Aequians, had become so powerful, that Rome had reason
to be jealous. The Latins were in close contact with the
Samnites on their frontier, and the latter were endeavouring
to make conquests on the Upper Liris. Hence an alliance
between Romans and Samnites was very natural: Rome and
Latium were allied indeed, but without trusting each other.
It is not necessary, however, to regard such a connection as a
defensive alliance, of which, in fact, it bears no appearance
wliatcver. It was a treaty rather than an alliance; and we
must especially remember, that such treaties in antiquity
usually contained an honest clause, fixing a line up to which
each party was to be allowed to make conquests. Such was
tlie treaty of Rome witla Carthage, that of the Carthaginians
vinder Ilasdrubal in Spain, and that of tlie Romans witli the
Aetolians. The moral reflections with which the division of
the new world made by pope Alexander VI. between Spain
and Portugal has been censured, are idle declamations ; for
this division was nothing else than the fixing of limits to con-
quests which each party might make. In like manner, a
boundary was fixed in the first real peace between the Romans
and Samnites, and the fact of the limit not being determined
with sufficient distinctness, gave rise to the second war.
Notwithstanding the general peace with the Latins, the
Tiburtines acted in a hostile manner towards Rome. They
seem to have formed an independent state, and took Gallic
armies into their pay. A war with the Tarquinians led the
Romans into Etruria along the sea coast. It was carried on
with great exasperation. The Etruscans penetrated to the
neighbourhood of Rome, but the plebeian consul, C. Marcius,
completely defeated them, and compelled them to conclude a
long truce.
The internal distress continued in consequence of the mag-
nitude uf the debts. One commission was appointed after
another, terms were fixed, and the state liad again to interfere.
298 THIRD GALLIC INVASION.
The republic, which was now in the receipt of the tithes from
the domain land, was so wealthy that it was in a condition to
make some general rcg-ulation. The debts were examined by
a commission, and all those who were involved, but could give
security, received advances from the public treasury to pay
their debts, a wise measure; for by paying back the capital
the rate of interest was brought down, money accunudated
greatly, and people were obliged to make the best use of it
they could. On the other hand, it was determined that who-
ever had property should not be compelled to sell it, which
would have lowered the price of land, but that he should be
allowed to give up his property for the debt according to a
fair valuation. In consequence of this measure the price of
land necessarily rose, and the rate of interest again fell:
the financial calculation was extremely wise and subtle. It
produced permanent and excellent results, although fresh
misfortunes were soon followed by fresh distress. Whenever
the calamities of a period arise from extraordinary events,
even the wisest ruler cannot prevent the pressure and misery
that flow from it. The misfortune to which I allude is the
third Gallic expedition in the year a.u. 405, which was far
more formidable to Kome than the second. The Gauls
appeared at the gates of the city, but the Komans did not
dare to ofier them battle. Their tactics were now greatly
developed, yet they were wise enough to confine themselves
to the defence of the city, although their territory was laid
waste in consequence. The Gauls remained in Latium for a
long time, and even during the winter. If we may believe
the accounts of the Komans, the Gauls were in a situation
similar to that of the Ostro-Goths under Radagasius, whom
Stilicho confined among the Apennines^, not far from Fiesole.
They are said to have withdrawn to the Alban hills, that is to
Monte Cavo. It is indeed possible, but highly improbable,
that they should of their own accord have gone to snow-
covered hills. It is clear that L. Furius Camillus, a nephew,
not a son of the great Camillus, marched out against the
Gauls, and distinguished himself as a general. He was indeed
* Even now the name given by the peasants to these mountains refers to
tliat Gothic jjcriod. — N. (Monte Sa*:so di Cai>tro, above Miigcllo, is the moun-
tain to the name of whicli Niebulu- liere refers, according to a conjecture of tlie
Editor of the third vohmie of tlie Ilunian liistory, p. 79, n. 144.)
C. MARCIUS EUTILUS. 299
an obstinate patrician, who violated the peace between the
two orders; but he was nevertheless bono 'publico natus. We
see that the Romans and Latins together sent a great army
into the field. They formed ten legions, a number which
could not have been furnished by the Romans alone. The
campaign against the barbarians was conducted with great
skill, for the Romans did not fight a battle, but thi'ew them
into extreme distress by means of entrenchments. The state-
ment of a grammarian that the Gauls concluded a treaty with
the Romans must probably be referred to this time. They
were allowed to depart, and having spread over Campania
and plundered it, they proceeded farther south.
Many important changes took place in the beginning of the
fifth century. "We find it mentioned as early as the year
A.U. 397, that the tribes declared war. This right at first
belonged to the curies, afterwards to the centuries, and now
to the tribes. It was natural, that as the vital power of the
state increased, the old customs should be set aside: as, for
example, to stop the proceedings of the assembly in conse-
quence of lightniag, or because a bird of ill-omen fiew by, and
the like. Such things had hitherto prevented an army being
formed, or any resolution whatever being passed by the cen-
turies; and it was reasonable to transfer the declaration of
war, and other important matters, to the assembly of the
tribes, an institution which from the beginning had been
conceived in a purely practical sense, and adapted to the
actual wants of the community.
LECTURE XXX VL
The extension of the rights of the plebeians is connected with
the name of C. Marcius Rutilus, the first plebeian censor and
dictator : he preserved the peace between the two estates ; and
in his case we perceive a change in the mode of electing a dic-
tator which is alluded to by Zonaras, but entirely overlooked
by Livy. Up to this time the dictator had alwajs been elected
by the patricians, that is, they elected one from among those
300 MODE OF APPOINTING A DICTATOR.
candidates who were proposed, as is expressly attested by a
passage in Livy: the last dictator elected by the curies was
Sulpicius, for otherwise there would have been no reason to
make particular mention of it. Livy merely copied thought-
lessly: he has many such statements, which seem superfluous,
unless we know from other sources how to account for them.
Three years later, we find a plebeian dictator whom the curies
would never have sanctioned. The change consisted in this :
the senate only determined that a dictator should be appointed,
and the consul named him. This is also implied in the state-
ment of Dionysius, which he applies to an earlier period, that
the appointment of the dictator was for a time left to the dis-
cretion of the consul : I have sufficiently explained this subject
in the first volume of the new edition of my Roman History.
Thus in proportion as the curies lost power, the senate gradu-
ally acquired an influence which it had not formerly possessed.
The traces of the very violent commotions, which took place
at that time, are much obscured, but a mention of them is pre-
served in Cicero, who relates that Popilius Laenas, in his con-
sulship, quelled a sedition of the plebes, whence he received a
surname. I place this consulship immediately before the elec-
tion of the plebeian dictator. In the year a.u. 400 the patri-
cians succeeded in setting the Liciuian law at defiance and con-
tinued to do so for a few years. Another great change took
place, by which the appointment of a number of tribunes of
the soldiers was assigned to the tribes.
In regard to Etruria, it is related that in consequence of a
truce the town of Caere was obliged to give up a portion of its
territory; a war therefore must have taken place with Caere,
which had never happened before ; this war is commonly much
declaimed against as being vxngrateful on the part of Eome,
since during the Gallic war, Caere had protected the sacred
treasures of the Romans: but we know nothing certain about
it.
We have now come to the time when, as Livy says, major a
hinc bella narranda sunt, for large masses meet each other in the
field, and Rome has to fight with a great people which showed
an heroic perseverance, possessed great generals and excellent
armour (which the Romans themselves adopted from them),
and had all the political virtues calculated to render a nation
iUustrious in the history of the world. The struggle for life
ANCIENT COLONIES, 301
and death lasted for seventy years, and was interrupted only by
treaties of peace or rather by truces. The Samnites show how
much may be gained by a nation for its descendants by heroic
perseverance, even when in the end it succumbs ; for the lot of
the Samnites was always more bearable than that of many other
nations wh.ich were subdued by Eome. Had their descendants
limited their wishes according to their actual circumstances,
had they not aimed, though with great heroism, at impossibili-
ties, and not given themselves up to antiquated feelings, they
would not have perished, no not even under Sulla. At that
time their fate was fearful ; but only because they had ceased
to take their own circumstances into consideration.
The great event Avhich marks the transition of Rome from
the age of boyhood to that of youth, was the taking of Capua
under its protection ; but the account of this event is very ob-
scure, and has moreover been falsified by the Romans them-
selves.
When in antiquity we hear of a colony committing acts of
hostility against the mother country, we always think of rebel-
lion and ingratitude: the ancients themselves, that is, our
authors, see in sixch an insurrection the strife of a daughter
against her mother. In some cases indeed this view is correct,
but in most of them, especially in the history of Italy, the
relation is quite different. We must remember how colonies
arose, how a portion of the territory was set apart for and
assigned to the colonists, the remainder being left to the
ancient inhabitants, and how the colonists then became either
the representatives of the ruling state, or, if they emancipated
themselves, an Independent sovereign power. The Romans
always connected their colonies closely with themselves, and
the same appears to have been done by the Latins. The Greek
colonics have scarcely any resemblance to them in this respect.
The Greeks mostly sent their colonies into desert districts,
where they built new towns into which they afterwards some-
times admitted pale-burghers and aliens; but they remained
quite foreign to the nations among whom they settled, as was
the case in Libya, on the Black Sea, in Asia j\Iinor, Thrace,
Gaul and Spain. It was only the Pelasgian nations in Italy
and Sicily that were akin to them, and hence the rapid growth
of the Greek colonies in those countries. The cause of send-
ing out a colony was usually of a political nature; it generally
302 ORIGIN OF THE SAMNITES.
consisted of political malcontents or of tlic surplus of an over-
populous place, and soon emancipated itself, retaining towards
tlie mother-city only tlie duties of respect. The Roman colo-
nies, on the other hand, were always in j^airia poiestate, and
were bound to jDcrform certain duties.
The system of the Samnites, and perhaps of all the Sabine
states, was different. As they had a quite different religion,
different fundamental forms of division, and different armour,
so they had a different law in regard to their colonies also.
Strabo mentions the tradition of the Samnites respecting their
origin; they were descended from the Sabines, and found
Oscans in the country which they conquered. That whole
country was inhabited by Oscans, while the coast was occupied
by the Pclasgians who at one time, we know not when, spread
over the midland district also. At first the Pelasgians proba-
bly dwelt from the Tiber as far as mount Garganus, but the
Oscans, being pressed upon by the Sabines spread from the
mountains of Abruzzo over those districts, which the Sabines,
the ancestors of the Samnites, subsequently occupied, and
penetrated to the southernmost parts of Italy, destroying in their
progress the original population. Their colonization, therefore,
was undertaken, not like that of the Romans, with a view to
establish their dominion, but in consequence of a superabund-
ance and fulness of life, whence we nowhere find any trace of
a connection between the Sabine colonies and the mother-
people. Thus it is with the Picentians, the Marsians, Marru-
cinians, Pelignians, Vestinians, and also with the Samnites. The
last-mentioned people consisted of four tribes which formed a
confederacy, the Pentrians, Caudines, Hirpinians, and probably
the Freutanians. The Frentanians were afterwards separated
from the rest, and in their stead another canton, probably
the Alfaterians, between Surrentum and the Silarus, was
admitted into the confederacy. From the Samnites, again,
other tribes issued, as the Lucanians; and out of a mixture
of the Lucanians with Oscan and Sabellian adventurers and
freedmen, there arose the Bruttians. When the Sabines had
established themselves in the middle valley of the Vulturnus,
they extended into Campania also, the most highly favoured
country of Italy ; an Etruscan colony had existed there ever
since the year A.u. 280. The earliest inhabitants of that
country were imdoubtedly Tyrrhenians, whence the origin of
INSURRECTION AT CAPUA. 303
Capua like that of Rome was referred to the Trojans; the
Tyrrhenians were subdued by the Oscans, and the hitter again
by the Etruscans: under the latter, Capua is said to have been
called Vulturnum. The Oscan population must have been
very numerous, for it gave a different character to the whole
nation. But the greatness of the Etruscans lasted only a short
time, for on the Tiber they were declining as early as the year
A.u. 320, and consequently in Campania even much earlier.
Now it is not surprising that Capua, a mere settlement of an
oligarchic nation, could not maintain itself against a conquer-
ing people, as the subdued Oscans were not very zealous in the
defence of their masters. The Etruscans in Capua, therefore,
made an agreement^, by which they admitted a Samnite colony,
the epoeci of their enemies, — a foolish arrangement which we
meet with very often in ancient history : in this manner the
Amphipolitans admitted the Chalcidians, and the latter after-
wards expelled the ancient Athenian colony: many similar
examples are mentioned by Aristotle. Such towns, in which
the ruling body of citizens consisted of different nations,
rarely had the good fortune enjoyed by Rome, that their
separate elements became equalized. The Samnites conspired
against the Etruscans, and shortly afterwards, with a faithless-
ness and cruelty peculiar to all the Sabelllan and Oscan nations,
murdered them and kept the town for themselves. Three
3'-ears later the Samnites spread as far as Cumae, and conquered
that city which had long been the most illustrious place in
Italy. The ruling population at Capua accordingly consisted
at first of Etruscans, and afterwards of Samnites, but with a
very numerous Oscan commonalty; for according to this
system of colonization, a branch of the conquering nation
received the sovereignty in the colony, one portion of the
ancient inhabitants in the towns became clients, and the others
remained free; whereas in the country, the population were
made serfs as in the conquests of the Franks and Longobards.
The relation of the Spanish colonies in Mexico likewise is of
a similar nature; for there too the ancient population has re-
mained. Such was the condition of Capua. We are now
told in Roman history, that the Campanians requested succour
from the Romans and Latins against the Samnites; but how
could this colony have fallen out with the mother people?
This can be explained only in the following manner. The
304 CONSTITUTION OF THE SAMNITES.
commonalty, consisting of Oscans who were kept in a state of
dependence by the Samnites, gained strength and increased:
and while the Roman plebes gradually became united with the
patricians, the commonalty of Capua broke out in open rebel-
lion and crushed the Samnite patricians. This was the cause
of the enmity between Capua and Samnium, but the Samnites
at Capua do not appear to have been annihilated, but only to
have lost the government : they are the Campanian cquites
mentioned by Livy, to whom the Eoman citizens paid an
annual tax, either as a compensation for the ager Falernus, or
as a reward for their fidelity to Rome. The Romans were
fond of keeping dependent people under an oligarchical
government.
The Samnites at that time extended from the Adriatic to
the Lower Sea. No ancient author describes their constitution,
and it is only from analogy and a consideration of particular
circumstances that we can form the following probable conclu-
sions. They consisted of four cantons, which constituted a
confederacy, perhaps with subjects and allied places ; and there
is every appearance that all four stood on a footing of perfect
equality. Each of these cantons was sovereign, but united
with the others by a league which was to last for ever; in
what manner the administration of the confederacy was
manajxed we know not. The weakness of the Samnites, in
comparison with the Romans, arose from the fact of their not
forming a single compact state, as the Romans did from the
time when the Latins came under their supremacy. It was
only in times of war that they united, though they must have
had a permanent congress; its nature, however, is entirely
unknown. Livy never mentions a senate of the Samnites;
but Dionysius in his fragments speaks of their irpo^ovKoi.
They were probably the envoys of each tribe, perhaps similar
to the uTTOK'X'nTOi of the Aetolians; but whether these envoys
had the right to decide upon peace and war, or whether a
popular assembly met for that purpose, as in the states of
Greece, is uncertain; if, however, the latter was the case, each
tribe had a vote, for in voting the ancients never paid any
regard to the accidental number of individuals^ belonging to
a tribe.
' This ob.servation removes the difficulty, which woiihl otherwise arise, in
explaining how the majority could decide a point in an assembly in which only
CONSTITUTION OF THE SAMNITES. 305
Latium received non-Latins into its confederacy; and in like
manner Rome formed two new tribes out of the allied Vol-
scians who lived near the Pontine marshes. At that time,
therefore, Rome and Latium still acted in concord, each
admitting a portion of the Volscians into its own confederacy
and keeping the Hernicans apart. Now the relation existing
among the Samnites was similar to that between Rome,
Latium and the Hernicans, who were united, without any one
of them having the supremacy, and had their common meetings;
each of the Samnite peoples was sovereign, and united with
the others only in regard to foreign countries. Nations which
are threatened with destruction from without, scarcely ever
rise to the healthy view that they must sacrifice the wishes of
their separate elements in order to preserve their nationality:
the people of Greece joining the Achaean league is the only
instance of the true policy. At first the Romans and Samnites
fought under equal circiimstances, but the Samnites never saw
the fundamental error of their constitution. I have not the
least doubt, that if they had reformed their constitution,
and had instituted one senate and a popular assembly, the
whole war would have taken a different turn. But as it was,
the supreme command belonged to different cantons at different
times; sometimes a measure was carried by Bovianum, some-
times by the Pentrians, and sometimes by the Caudines : now
one people was attacked, then another; the chief command
passed from one people to another, and was probably given to
the canton which was most threatened at the time, in order that
it might be able to protect itself. The supreme magistrate of
the confederacy bore the title of Embrntur (Impernto?'), w^hich
is often mentioned in inscriptions. It is probable that each
canton also had its i7npe7-afor, and that when a tribe had the
chief command, its imperator became the imperator or perhaps
praetor, of the whole army. There is every appearance that
their constitutions were thoroughly democratical, as might be
expected among such mountaineers. They must have been
s
those persons voted who chanced to be present. Let us apply this to Rome :
how was it that those who belonged to the very distant tribus Velina did not
feel themselves wronged in comparison with the Palatina? The difficulty i
removed, if we remember that each tribe had only one vote, so that on impor-
tant emergencies the distant tribes sent their best men to the city, whereby the
government became a representative one. — N.
VOL. I. X
306 CAUSE OF THE SAMNITE WAR.
completely amalgamated witli the ancient population, since,
even after the most fearful defeats, they always appear in large
numbers and perfect harmony.
The extension of the Samnites towards the Liris was the
circumstance which in A.U. 412 involved them in a war with
the Romans. The Volscians were of no consequence: their
power was broken, and they were for the most part allied or
united with the Latins. The sway of the Samnites extended
as far as Casinum, and they had subdued the Volscians as far
as Sora and Fregellae, though sometimes they evacuated those
districts. But they had also spread as far as Apulia, and con-
quered a great part of that country, as for instance, Luceria.
We thus see that they were a nation greater than the Romans
and Latins put together, and that their country was equal
in extent to half of the modern Switzerland. I have already
mentioned their alliance or treaty with Rome at the beginning
of the fifth century; but unfortunately such treaties are
observed only so long as ambition and the love of conquest are
not much excited. I have no doubt that the two nations had
agreed not to extend their power beyond the Liris; but the
Romans may have repented that they had fixed such narrow
boundaries for themselves. Had the Samnites taken Teanum,
they would have been masters of all the districts between the
rivers, and have subdued the country as far as the Liris. Livy
himself admits that the Romans had no right to form an
alliance with the Campanians.
It is said that the Campanians became involved in war
with the Samnites, because the latter attacked the Sidicines of
Teanum": the Sidicines probably belonged to the same race as
the Oscans; they inhabited Teanum, but were perhaps not
confined to that town. They first applied to the Campanians,
because the latter were no longer the allies of the Samnites,
and because the Campanian plebes could not^but consider it an
advantage to gain the Sidicines as a protection against the
Samnites in the north. Capua ruled over a number of towns
all of which are said to have been Etruscan, though this is
improbable; the territory over which its dominion extended
' The war between the Samnites and Sidicines sliows that the dominion of
the Samnites then extended as far as the upper Liris, so that its boundary in
D'Anville is too narrow, — N.
ROMAN ALLIANCE WITH CAMPANIA. 307
was called Campania' which was not the designation of the
conntry which bears that name in our maps : it extended only
a little beyond the Vulturnus as far as Casilinuni' in the south,
and Calatia and Saticula in the north ; Nola, Neapolis, Pom-
peii, and Herculaneum did not belong to it; the territory
therefore was small, and the name denotes only the domain of
the citizens of Capua. In consequence of the fertility of their
country, the Campanians were wealthy and unwarlike; they
were anxious to prevent the attack of the Samnites, but being
unable to resist the mountaineers they were defeated. The
Samnites proceed to Mount Tifata, above Capua, and laid waste
the country all around. It was the ancient Oscan population
of Capua that carried on the war in spite of the Samnite
colony : their distress was very great, and it is likely that the
Samnites contemplated restoring the oligarchical constitution
of the colony: under these circumstances, the Campanians
applied to Eome, or probably to the diet of the Romans,
Latins, and Hernicans. This is evident, from statements
derived from L. Cincius; in Livy we perceive the intentional
obscurity of the Roman tradition about it. The Romans
themselves would have been greatly perplexed by this proposal,
as they were allied by treaty with the Samnites ; hence the
Campanians placed themselves under the protection of the
whole confederacy. This deditio must not be imagined to be
that of a conquered people; for here we merely have one
nation which seeks protection, and another which grants it.
In such things, the Romans were always hypocritical observers
of the letter of the law, though in reality they might act in
direct opposition to the spirit of the laws of Numa and Ancus ;
the only good result of this feeling, was, that they always
wished to have at least the appearance of justice on their side.
We must not, however, on this account, consider the ancient
Roman fides as altogether hypocritical, since their reverence
for law certainly did keep them from many an act of oppres-
sion towards the weak. They may be excused by the con-
sideration that according to all appearance the Samnites were
becoming too great; it could be foreseen that, after all, the
treaty would soon be violated, and hence they would not allow
^ Campania is the country of the Campanians, that is, the inhabitants of
Capua. On coins wc read Capani, and in Plautus we find Campas instead of
Campanus. — N.
x 2
308 THE SAMNITE WAR —A. CORNELIUS COSSUS.
a favorable opportunity to pass by. The Romans, however,
were too much tempted by the prospect of gaining the
Campanians and all the people of that country by forming a
treaty of protection with Capua. There is no question that
they were not impelled by a desire to protect those w^ho were
in want of aid; they were overpowered by an evil spirit, and
the exasperation of the Samnites against them was perfectly
just. The Romans sent an embassy to the Samnites, requesting
them to conclude peace with the Sidicines, and not to lay
waste the Campanian territory because Campania had placed
itself under their protection. The Samnites proudly rejected
this proposal; and now arose their gigantic struggle against
the Romans, Latins, and Hernicans.
This Samnite war is the first in Roman history that is
worthy of being related; whatever deduction we may make
irom the numbers stated by Livy, — which we may do the
more safely, as the person of whom these deeds are narrated
is a Valerius, and Valerius Antiat was a client of that Hxmily
— yet the difFerenco between these battles, and the earlier
ones is obvious. In the year A.u. 412, three battles were
fought, the first great battles, excepting that of A. Postumius
Tubertus, on IMount Algidus, that are recorded in Roman
history.
In this year the Licinian law was violated for the last time:
both consuls were patricians, A. Cornelius Cossus, of whom but
little is known, and M. Valerius Corvus, a man in whose favour
an exception might have been made at any time. He was, as
Pliny justly remarks, one of the greatest and happiest men,
and Solon himself would have admitted it. He is one of the
historical heroes of Rome, although the story about the origin
of his surname belongs to poetry (Livy himself does not con-
sider it histoi'ical): but it proves, that even as late as that time
the heroes of Rome were the themes of sonsf. No one will
believe that in A.U. 406, a Gaul challenged the boldest Roman
to a single combat, and that Valerius, then only twenty-three
years old, conquered him, a raven flying against the enemy,
and pecking at and tearing his face, so as to render the victory
easy for the youth. His first consulship falls in his twenty-
third year, the one in which he had slain the (Jaul: it is pro-
bable that forty-six years later he was raised to his sixth consul-
ship: he lived to nearly the age of one hundred years, and
M. VALERIUS CORVUS. 3U9
saw the complete subjugation of Italy. At that time it was
still a matter of frequeut occurrence, that men, after their
consulship, were invested with the other curule magistracies;
to these Valerius was repeatedly elected down to his latest days,
and discharged the duties of all with the full vii'our of his
mind. He is the man who may give his name to the century
he lived in ; he was the idol of his soldiers, being not only one
of the greatest generals, but swaying the hearts of his soldiers
by his amiable and brotherly manners, without ever losing his
authority over them : the soldiers saw in him the ablest of
their equals. If we imagine ourselves placed by the side of
his death-bed, and look back upon his life, full of important
events, we shall have before our minds' eye a gigantic period
which we cannot picture to ourselves with too much distinct-
ness.
Rome sent two consular armies, one-half consistinf of
Romans, and the other of Latins, into Campania, which on
the side of Samnium was quite open. Nola was even a Sani-
nite colony, and Keapolis was allied with them. The two
armies appear in entirely different circumstances. That of
J\I. Valerius was in Campania, beyond the Vulturnus, and
acted evidently quite on the defensive. The army of Corne-
lius Cossus, on the other hand, was destined to make a
diversion into Samnium, Capua undoubtedly being the basis
of that operation, since he penetrated into Samnium to the
north of the Vulturnus, by the common road from Calatia to
Beneventum. We cannot obtain a clear view of the events
of the war, and can judge of their course only by drawing
inferences from isolated facts. We find Valerius on Mount
Gaurus, probably near Xuceria, so that the Romans entered
Samnium on that side for the purpose of protecting Campania.
There was another ]\Iount Gaurus, not far from Cumae and
Cape ]\Iiseuum. If the latter is meant, the Romans must
have been pressed by the Samnites into that corner, and
having the sea and the Vulturnus in their rear, their victory
would have been the result of despair.^ This would clearly
show, that at first the Romans sustained losses which are
passed over by Livy, or the annalists whom he followed ; but,
* In his Hist, of Rome, in. p. 119, Niebiihr speaks with much more coufidenee
in favom- of tlic second view; but it must be observed tli;U that passage, wiiii
the same words, occiu's also in the first cditiou (181:2), whereas tlie opinion
310 SANGUINARY BATTLE WITH THE SAMNITES.
at all events, the battle restored the balance. It was obviously
the greatest of all that had yet been fought by the Romans,
for though previous battles may have been bloody, yet they
were not carried on with perseverance. AVhen the Gauls had
fourrht for a few hours, and to no purpose, they gave up the
battle ; and the Aequians, Volscians, and Hernicans were few
in number. The Samnites, on the other hand, were arrayed
against the Romans in equal numbers, and possessed equal
determination, and thus they fought the whole day till night-
fall without any decisive result, until the Roman equites, the
j)rincipes juventutis (the Samnites had no cavalry, and that of
the Romans was weak), dismounted, placed themselves before
the lines, and fought with true heroism. The real nobility
of the nation put all the rest to shame, but the latter now
followed their leaders and were irresistible. The massacre
was immense on both sides; the Samnites yielded, but only
retreated. It was not a flight, but just as at Grossgorschen
and Bautzen ; and the conquerors followed them with the
greatest caution. In the neighbourhood of Suessula, only a
few miles from the battle-field, the Samnites made a fresh
stand. Their camp and the wounded, of course, fell into the
hands of the Romans. The victory gave to the latter more
hopes than real advantages; but the main point was, that the
battle was a happy omen for the whole war, which they had
certamly begun with the prospect of a possibility of their
being in the end completely annihilated.
The expedition of A. Cornelius Cossus into Samnium
luidoubtedly belongs to the beginning of the campaign. He
seems to have been met by a general rise of the militia of the
Samnites, whose general custom it was to act on the offensive
with the army, and to leave their country to the defence of
thq people: the invading Romans had mostly to do with the
country people who rose in arms. Samnium was then in full
vigour and strength; the Roman commander incautiously
entered the hostile country, which was unknown to him and
very difficult to pass with an army. No enemy opposing him,
he crossed from west to east the chain of mountains which
expressed in our text, is that given liy N. in his lectures of 1828-9. The
detailed description of the battle, liowcver, belonging to the year 1S26, is based
upon the explanation which he had given at an earlier period. Wc make this
observation to prevent misconceptions. En.
p. DECIUS MUS. 311
runs from north to south. There Tvere only a few passes : the
first cokunn was ah'eaJj in the valley, wliile the rear was yet
on the ridge of the mountam — this is what we can gather
from the confused accoimt of Livy. The consul's intention
probably was to reach the road to Beneventum and the fertile
valley of the Galore, in order to separate the northern from
the southern Samnites. When in this situation, he observed
that the opposite hill was occupied, he halted: to retreat
through the defile was very difficult, and the Samnites were
advancing to occupy a height commanding the road. The
Romans were almost surrounded, for the Samnites were
already engaged in taking possession of the road in their rear.
AVhile the Romans were thus situated, the tribune, P. Decius
Mus, who belonged to one of the greatest plebeian families,
offered to the consul to hasten iip the mountain with one
cohort, and to take possession of the height which the Sam-
nites incautiously had just abandoned, so that he could attack
them in their rear, and sustain the shock of the enemy, until
the Roman army should reach the ridge of the mountain through
the pass. This plan was carried into efiect. Decius reached
the height which commanded the pass, before the Samnites,
who were now obliged to try to dispossess him ; but he there
fought with his men like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in the
conviction that they must die, and with such perseverance, that
the Samnites gave up the attack for that evening. ^Vhile the
Romans retreated to the road which had been abandoned, the
Samnites encamped with the determination to storm the height
the next morning. The battalion of Decius, however, was
quite surrounded; but in the night he ventured to sally down
the hill, and forced his way through the enemy, and thus with
the survivors of his band he returned to the consul. It is stated,
indeed, that on the day following the Romans again won a
great victory, but we cannot trust the account. The army of
Cossus is not after this time mentioned : he had probably be-
come aware of the perilous nature of his expedition, or he was
called into Campania, because some loss had been sustained
there. On ]\Iount Gaurus, Valerius was alone, but at Suessula
we find the two consuls united : those enemies who followed
the march of Gossus joined the Samnites. Both were encamped
opposite each other for a long time, but the Samnites being
superior in numbers, considered their cause too safe. Their
312 INSURRECTION IN THE ROMAN AKMY.
commander cannot have been a man of much talent; they
ranged over the country indulging in plunder, especially as
Valerius in his fortified camp seemed to show symptoms of fear.
When the Samnitcs were thus scattered, Valerius suddenly at-
tacked their camp and took it ; he then quickly turned against
the separate corps and routed them one after another, so that
both consuls gained a brilliant victory and were honoured with
a triumph.
LECTURE XXXVII.
The Romans now experienced that times may be bright and
prosperous, although a heavy pressure is weighing upon the
people. Ever since the Licinian law, the misery of the mass
of the citizens continued uninterrupted, and ever and anon new
commissions were appointed to liquidate the debts, but without
any good result. The wars demanded very heavy taxes, and
the plebeians were obliged to fight in the battles, and at the
same time to provide for their families : we have reason to
believe tjiat not half the men capable of bearing arms remain-
ed at home ; and so bloody a war as that against the Samnites
must have caused severe sufferings to many a family. In the
second year of the war, when either the Latins had the su-
preme command, or, perhaps, a truce existed between the
Romans and Samnites, a mutiny arose which very nearly came
to an insurrection. Livy is obscure on this subject, but an excerpt
of Constantino from Appian, in which we distinctly recognise
Dionysius, throws much light upon it. The insurrection of the
year A.u. 413, was brought about by the state of the debtors;
Livy conceals this, and relates, that, while the Roman army
was encamped in Campania, probably in consequence of a
truce, the soldiers were tempted to make themselves masters of
Capua. The Roman consul who undertook the command and
found the army engaged in a manifest conspiracy, endeavoured
to get rid of the ringleaders by sending them one by one in
different directions, and then ordering each to be arrested.
This mode of acting however excited their suspicions, and one
T. QUINCTIUS. 313
cohort which was sent to Kome haked near Lautulae, between
Terracina and Fundi, four or five miles from the former, in a
desolate district between the hills and the sea, which was at
all times the haimt of robbers and banditti. The hills there
approach the sea almost as near as at Thermopylae, though
they are not so steep: it is quite a narrow pass by which
Latium and Campania are connected. There seem to have
been warm springs in this place, so that even in the name
there is a resemblance between it and Thermopylae. The
country is now desolate, and when I was at Terracina I forgot
to enquire for the springs, in consequense of which I was not
able to find them. In the second Samnite war a battle was
fought near Lautulae, which is one of the greatest battles re-
corded in history. When the cohort reached that place, it
revolted and was joined by a number of others; the communi-
cation between Eome and the head quarters of the army was
cut off; the messengers of the consuls were intercepted, and
we must suppose that the whole army refused to obey its com-
manders. A number of persons who v.'ere enslaved for debt
attached themselves to the insurgents, and what now happened
was more terrible than any thing which Rome had yet ex-
perienced, for the insurrection became general, and the common
people marched against the city in arms, though they did not
injure the consul. This multitude was no longer the plebes of
the Sacred ]\Iount : it was an insurrection of the proletarians
against the rich, and very like a revolt of the workmen in a
factory against their employers. But fortunately for Rome,
they were not yet quite impoverished : they still looked upon
themselves as plebeians, and upon the most distinguished
among the plebeians as their leaders, so that the latter might
make use of them in reforming the constitution. It is surpris-
ing to find that they fetched T. Quinctius, a lame and aged
patrician, from his estate in the territory of Alba, and made
him their captain, just as the peasants in the peasant- war of
Germany made GiJtz their leader: they then advanced towards
the city which was thrown into great alarm l)v the approach-
ing danger. The government no longer knew in whom to trust :
everybody in the city armed himself as well as he could ; but the
civic legions would scarcely have been able to maintain them-
selves against the arm v. The heart of Valerius Corvus was
bleeding at the prospect of a civil war; tlic plcbs too was
314 PROGRESS OF LEGISLATION.
fortunately not quite demoralised; and he made an offer of
reconciliation. The army likewise was moved; when they
saw their relations armed in the city, they raised loud lamenta-
tions and were wiUing to listen to proposals of peace : both
parties were loth to shed the blood of their brethren. The
consequence of this moderation on both sides was a reconcilia-
tion, and a peace was concluded in which, according to Appian,
that is, Dionysius, the debts were cancelled.
The cause of the insurrection, as it is described in this
account, is in the highest degree improbable; the sending away
of individuals could surely have lasted only a very short time,
and it is quite inconceivable that a whole cohort should have
been thus disposed of. The other account does not speak at
all of an insurrection of the soldiers, nor of their intention to
take Capua, but represents it as an internal commotion, as a
secession, like those of the commonalty in former times, and
as having arisen out of the distress of the numerous debtors,
and the disputes between the patricians and plebeians, since
the Licinian law had ceased to be observed. The plebeians
seceded to the neighbourhood of Alba, where they were joined
by cohorts from the army. The senate, it is said, levied troops,
but there is no mention of the two armies having met, nor of
the appointment of Valerius to the dictatorship of which Livy
speaks : when matters had proceeded so far as to call for the
interference of the sword, both parties determined to put a
stop to the dispute at any cost.
These occurrences were followed by a great and essentially
civic legislation, by which that of Licinius was completed.
Whatever may have been the real history of this commotion,
it must, at all events, have been more important than Livy^s
description would lead us to suppose. Up to that time the
Licinian law respecting the consulship had been violated seven
times in the course of thirteen years; but henceforward we
hear of no more actual violations, although some absurd attempts
still continued to be made. During that commotion some
regulation must have been made which rendered it impossible
for any attempts against the Licinian law to succeed; and
clauses must have been added, perhaps as severe as those in the
lex Valeria Horatia, by which the heaviest penalties were
inflicted on him who shoidd disturb the election of the tribunes
of the people. It is, moreover, said to have been determined
MILITARY ARRANGEMENTS. 31^
that botli consuls might be elected from among the plebeians,
but this seems to be a misunderstanding, and it can at any rate
be proved that no such regulation was carried into effect. In
the Hannibalian war, a special resolution was once passed that
during the war both consuls might be elected from among the
plebeians, but no practical application of this resolution was
made, and it was not till the year A.u. 500, that the natural
principle gained the upper hand; the patrician nobility had
then become so insignificant, that it was impossible any longer
to abide by the law of Licinius.
Another regulation mentioned by Livy is of great impor-
tance, and shews that the question was no longer merely about
the difference between the two estates, but that the plebeian
nobles had begun to have recourse to the oligarchical intrigues,
which until then had been employed by the patricians alone, a
proof that the one set of men was not better than the other.
The law in question established two points, first that no one
should hold two curule offices at the same time, and secondly
that a person invested with a curule office should not be re-
eligible to it till the expiration of ten years. The first provision
could affect only the patricians in regard to the praetorship,
and was probably made because it had often happened that a
patrician consul had at the same time caused himself to be
elected praetor, in order to obtain an influence over his col-
league; in regard to the aedileship, it may have affected
the plebeians also in alternate years. Livy says that the law
was mainly directed against the ambitio novorum hominum;
the second provision of the law had probably been brought
about by the plebeians themselves, as a security against the
overwhelming influence of members of their own order, for
up to that time we always find the same plebeian names in the
consulship, such as Popilius Laenas, C. Marcius, C. Poctelius,
so that it was intended to prevent the exclusive lustre of a
few plebeian families.
Livy was aware of the existence of two laws respecting
military affairs which arose out of this insurrection. The first
enacted that whoever had once been a tribune of the soldiers
should not afterwards be made a centurion : it is said, that this
law was enacted through the agency of a certain Salonius who
had been thus degraded by his enemies. The consuls had it
in their power to appoint the centurion? : when a person had
316 MILITARY OFFICEKS.
been tribune, it was contrary to the feeling of the soldiers
that he sliould become a centurion, because a centurion was
only a subaltern officer. Six of the tribunes were annually
appointed by the tribes, and the rest by the consuls, but a
person could not be elected for two successive years by the
same authorities. During the year in which he could not be
tribune, he would be free from military service. Now Salonius
who had been tribune^ and in that capacity seems to have been
in opposition to the consuls was appointed centurion by them :
the consuls thus degraded him while he was raised by public
opinion, and it was against such proceedings that the law was
directed. The regulations about the corps of officers are among
the most excellent adopted by the Romans. Slow and gradual
advancement and a provision for officers in their old age were
things unknown to the Romans. No one could by law have a
permanent appointment; every one had to give evidence of his
ability ; the idea of a gradual rising from the ranks and of a
standin o- corps of officers was never entertained : a tribune of
the soldiers was elected for one year only, and if he shewed no
skill he was not re-elected ; but he who was fit was elected
year after year, sometimes by the people, sometimes by the
consuls. It was, moreover, not necessary to pass through a
long series of suljordinatc offices; a young Roman noble served
as eques, and the consul had in his cohort the most distin-
guished to act as his staff; there they learned enough, and in
a few years a young man, in the full vigour of life, might
become a tribune of the soldiers. But besides this, due atten-
tion was paid to that respectable class of people who without
talent for higher posts were well fitted to train the soldiers.
Such persons became centurions, who may be compared to our
sergeants ; all of them were people of common descent, they
had good pay and a respectable position, and in special cases
Avhere a man shewed particular ability he might become
tribune. All the functions which, in modern armies, are
performed by a large number of subaltern officers, might just
as well be performed by an able sergeant. The military regu-
lations of the Romans in all these points, are as admirable as
those concerning the training of the individual soldier.
The second law shews how Livy confounds everything: the
pay of the cquites is said to have been diminished because
they had taken no part in the insurrection. If the mutineers
PEACE WITH THE SAMNITES. 317
could have carried siich a law, the state would have been lost.
I believe that this was the time when the equitcs ceased to
receive their 2000 asses from widows and orphans, and wlien
it was established that they should have a fixed pay, — a fair
change, but a disadvantage to the eques publicus ; fair, I say,
because the state was able to bear the expense.
The curies, assembled in the Petelinian grove, now decreed
a full amnesty for all that occurred, and no one was to be
upbraided, either in joke or in earnest for his conduct. Livy
considers it to have been a decree of the centuries, audoribus
patribus, but from the trial of ]\Ianlius it is clear, that only the
curies assembled in the Petelinian grove.
Hereupon the Romans concluded peace Avith the Samnites :
even the year before, they had received from them a compen-
sation for pay and provisions, or they received it now. The
peace was concluded by the Romans alone, and that with a bad
intention, for they had undertaken the war conjointly with
the Latins, whom they now left to shift for themselves. They
gave up Capua to the Samnites, and left the conquest of
Teanum to their choice, but the Sidicines threw themselves
into the arms of the Latins, and concluded a separate alliance
with the Volscians, Aunmcans, and Campanians. Such things
have occurred in modern times also, as for example, the alliance
between Prussia and Russia under Frederick the Great, and
Peter the third, in the Seven Years' War. The Latins now
continued the war, suo Marfe, whicli Liv}^ in accordance with
his peculiar views, regards as an act of injustice on their part,
as if they had thereby offended against the majesty of the
Roman people. They made war upon the Pelignians, from
which we see that the Aequians belonged to them, since other-
wise they could not have come in contact with the Pelignians :
the latter allied themselves with the Samnites, and the Samnites
required the Romans either to act as mediators, or to give
them succour; for the peace with them had immediately been
followed by an alliance. The alliance of Rome with the Latins
and Hernicans had now come to a crisis; the Plernicans were
either neutral, or, as is more probable, were still allied with
the Romans, since Livy and the Capitoline Fasti do not mention
them among those who triumphed over i\Iaenius. Such con-
federacies may exist among nations, none of which is as
ambitious and powerful as Rome then was: but now three
318 RELATIONS WITH LATIUM.
things were possible ; they might cither separate and remain
friends, or form a union like that of Great Britain and Ireland,
or lastly, decide by force of arms which was the strongest; for
to continue together, side by side, was impossible. Even the
year before, the war had not been carried on in common, and
the Latins had gone into the field under their own banners.
Hence it was now resolved to negotiate. The Latins had a
more solid constitution than the Samnites, and were governed
like the Romans; they had two praetors as the Eomans had
two consuls; and they must have had a senate, since there is
mention of the decern primi, who were evidently the deputies
of so many towns. These decern prirni went to Rome, and
there made the very fair proposal that the two states should
unite. The senate was to be raised from 300 to 600; the
pojDular assembly was to be increased (so that it would probably
have been necessary to increase the twenty-seven Roman tribes
to thirty, and to allow the Latin towns to vote as so many
tribes), Rome was to be the seat of the government ; and every
year one of the consuls was to be a Roman, and the other a
Latin. Had the Romans accepted this proposal, Rome and
Latium would in reality have become equal ; but every Roman
would have felt his own infiuence weakened. A Latin consul
was repugnant to the Romans; for in all republics, however
democratical they may be, there is a spirit of exclusiveness, of
which we have a striking example in the history of Geneva,
where we find citoyens, bourgeois, natifs, that is, the children of
the metoeci or habitans, and lastly habitans, all of which classes
acquired the franchise one after another. The canton of Uri
is the most oligarchical of all. The plebeians as well as the
patricians were indignant at the proposal ; as there was to be
only one Roman consul, the question would have arisen, is he
to be a patrician or a plebeian? they would more easily have
adopted a proposal to have four consuls. The embassy of the
Latins, as Livy says, was received with general indignation,
not because the Romans were ignorant that the impending
struggle would be a contest for life and death, but because
vanity and selfishness outweighed this consideration. It is
related that the consul, T. ]\Ianlius, declared that he would cut
down with his own hand the first Latin who should appear in
the Roman senate. The story moreover has this poetical addi-
tion, that while the discussions were going on in the Capitol,
THE ROMAN ARMY. 319
tliere arose a tempest, accompanied by a heavy fall of rain, and
that the Latin praetor, in descending the hundred steps of the
Tarpeian rock, fell down, and was picked up a corpse; the
unpoetical spirit of later narratives has changed his death into
a fit of fainting.
The Sabines with their ancient reputation for justice had
sunk into a torpor and had lost all importance; the northern
confederacy of the Marsians, Pelignians, Marrucinians and Ves-
tinians, brave as they were, had no other wish than to live
quietly among their mountains. The Komans were allowed to
march through their territory, and as they were allied with
the Samnites, the latter expected that the Latin war would
aiford them an opportunity of taking Capua and Teanum. If
the Romans had dreaded to allow their territory to be ravaged
by the Latins, they would have been obliged to maintain
themselves on the defensive, or to carry on tedious sieges of
the Latin towns. But the Roman commanders here shewed
their greatness : they formed a most masterly plan, made up
their minds to the very boldest undertakings, called out the
army of reserve in the city, and abandoned their territory up
to the very gates of Rome to the Latins. Their army marched
through the Sabine and Marsian territory, taking a circuitous
route in order to join the Samnites, and in conjunction with
them proceeded towards Capua. If the Latins had abandoned
the Campanians to their fate, and had gone to meet the Ro-
mans on their march, in the country of the Aequians, they
might perhaps have defeated them in those impassable districts.
But a great general places his enemy where he wishes to have
him : the daring boldness of the Romans is a proof of the
excellence of their generals, Manlius and Decius, who, like
all great generals, had formed a correct estimate of their ene-
mies, and trusting to the accuracy of their estimate, ventured
to lead their army by that circuitous road. Had the Latins
moved rapidly, they might have laid waste the whole Roman
territory, appeared at the gates of Rome eight days before the
Roman army could have returned, and efiected an easy retreat
to their fortresses ; but the Roman generals probably knew
that their enemies were timid and without great leaders, and
therefore left the road to Rome unprotected. The Latins
listened to the complaints of the Campanians, and perhaps
imagined that the Roman army might be annihilated then at
320 • BATTLE OF VESERIS.
one blow, since it could not return. Their forces justified them
in this expectation, and the decision of the contest hung upon
a thread ; for there was as much probability of their conquering
as of being conquered. The Romans undoubtedly had enlisted
all the men they could muster, but they were, notwithstanding,
inferior to the Latins in numbers: it is quite certain that they
were joined by the Samnites, though the Roman annals endea-
voured to conceal that fact by stating that the Samnites did
not arrive till after the battle. The Latins and their allies,
the Volscians, Aequians, Sidicines, Campanians and Aurun-
cans were encamped on the eastern side of Mount Vesuvius ; it
is vmcertain, whether Veseris, where the battle was fought, is
the name of a place or of a river. The two armies faced each
other for a long time, dreading the day which was to decide
their fate. If the Latins had had an able commander they
might, even after a defeat, have been better off than the Romans,
as they might have withdrawn to Capvia, and protected them-
selves behind the Vulturnus and Liris, and there collected re-
inforcements from their own country. The Romans, moreover,
in a military point of view were not superior to the Latins;
one Roman and one Latin century had always formed a mani-
ple in the Roman legion, so that the constitution of the two
armies was the same. Under these circumstances, the consul
forbade, under penalty of death, all skirmishes, on account of
the importance of the moral impression that might thence result,
trifling events easily producing a prejudice regarding the issue
of a battle, and not on account of the acquaintance of the Ro-
man soldiers with the enemy, as Livy states. In like manner,
it was forbidden in the Russian army to accept the challenge
of the Turkish spahis. The stricter the command was, the
more did the Latin horsemen provoke the Romans^, and this
gave rise to the single combat between Geminius Metius of
Tusculum and the son of the consul IManlius. This occurrence
is beautifully described by Livy, with the heart of a Roman
and the power of a poet : the father in order to enforce obedi-
ence ordered his unfortunate but heroic son to be put to death.
There is yet another circumstance which Livy mentions but
cursorily": there can be no doubt that in the ancient tradition
' The Roman cavalry was always tlie worst part of the army, and inferior, for
example, to that of the -i'Etoliaiis. — N-
' VIII. 8; towards tlie end. — Ed.
C03irOSITION OF THE LEGION. 321
there was, besides IManlius, a centurion who gained the victory
for the pedites, as the son of the consul did for the equites.
The long time which passed away before the battle began is
a decided proof that the Samnites joined the Romans. Both
parties commenced the fight with sail forebodings; and the two
consuls, moreover, had had a vision prophesying a disastrous
issue by informing them that one army and the commander of
the other were forfeited to the gods of the dead : the two con-
suls therefore agreed that the commander of that wing', which
should first be in danger should devote himself to the infernal
gods. Each of them oflfered up a sacrifice : that of Decius was
unfavorable, but that of Manlius promised success. It is men-
tioned on this occasion, as on many others relating to sacrifices,
that the liver had no caput : the caput is the same thing as in
Italian is still called capo, that is, the part where the liver is
connected with the diaphragm; and the caput being wanting
means that there was no trace of the connection. The liver
presents the greatest varieties, even in animals which are per-
fectly healthy. The heart and lungs afford no means for form-
ing prophecies, while the liver in almost every case has some
abnormity. Decius, then, went into battle with the intention
of sacrificing himself; but the resolution must have been made
even before he left Rome, since the pontifex accompanied him
for the purpose of dedicating him to the gods.
The Roman legion at that time consisted of five battalions,
hastati, principes, friarii, rorarii and accensi. Among them
were three battalions of tlie line, mixed with light-armed troops,
and one battalion of light troops, the rorarii with one third of
the hastati. Nearly two thirds of the hastati had, from the
earliest times, been armed with lances; the p7-incipes had pila
as early as the time we are here speaking of, but the triarii still
had lances. These formed the troops of the line ; but the feren-
tarii were light troops with slings, and one third of the hastati
also were light troops armed with javelins. They were placed
in front at the beginning of a battle, just like the ■^ikoi of the
Greeks, and afterwai'ds withdrew through the lines, and placed
^ It is a general mistake of modern writers to compare the cornu dextrum and
sinistrum with aiTangements of our own armies, and consequently to suppose
that there also existed a central battalion (corps de bataille^; but a Roman .nrmy
consisted only of those two halves (cornua). All modern writers on tactics, with
the exception of Gui^chard, are mistaken on this head. — N.
VOL. I. Y
322 TRAINING OF THE SOLDIERS.
themselves behind them, but always advanced again as soon as
the enemy retreated. These three battalions stood in single
maniples with intervals, as at Zama, but cannot possibly have
been drawn up en echelons, since so large an interval in one
line as that described by Livy is practically impossible, for the
cavalry would immediately have broken through it ; they were
probably drawn up in the form of a quincunx, and in this
manner the intervals may be conceived. Now as all the Roman
military arrangements were calculated to support the efforts of
individuals as long as possible, and not to form solid masses like
those of the Greeks, the first two battalions were drawn up as
near as possible to the enemy and under the protection of the
light troops. Every Koman soldier was perfectly trained in
the art of fighting. According to later regulations, the soldiers
began with the pilum. The Roman soldiers were drawn up
in ten lines with large intervals, and when they were drawn up
close, the first battalion advanced, stopped and then threw the
fearful pila, which penetrated through the coat of mail, and of
which each soldier had several. After the first charge, the
soldiers who had first thrown the pila retreated two steps, while
those who stood behind them advanced two steps, and occupied
places in the line by their side ; the first line then withdrew
and formed the tenth line, and thus all the ten lines had their
turn for making use of their pila. This mode of attack, which is
the only true and possible one, was formidable for the enemy.
If we consider this quiet mode of advancing and retreating, we
can understand why the battles lasted so long, and why the
combatants did not at once come to close quarters ; one hour
must undoubtedly have elapsed before all the pila were thrown,
and then the fight with swords began, during which the lines
again took it in turns: those who stood behind were not idle,
for when the foremost fell or were fatigued, those in their rear
advanced and took their places ; and thus a Roman battle might
have lasted a long time. To fight successfully in such a battle
the soldiers must be trained and drilled in the excellent manner
of the Romans: the dust and the war-cries were not disturbing
as smoke and the thuntlcr of cannon. When the hastati had
done fighting, they withdrew behind the principcs who then
commenced : when they were overpowered, they fell back upon
the triarii, who at that time formed a kind of reserve, which,
however, was obliged to take part in the fight. Besides these
SELF-IMMOLATION OF DECIUS. 323
four battalions, the three battalions of the line, and tlie one
with light armour, there existed a fifth consisting of the acccnsi
who were Avithout armour, and whose business it was to step
in and take the armour of those who had fallen; the accensi
and velati were the two centuries that were added to the fifth
class, but did not come up to its census. It is clear that IMan-
lius in that war did something which had never been done
before : he armed the accensi, made use of them instead of the
triarii to strengthen the lines, and reserved the triarii for the
decisive moment, and by this means he saved himself. Livy
states that the Latins mistook the accensi for the triarii, which
is impossible; but the accensi likewise may have been armed
with spears and have advanced as phalangitc?. The Latins
followed their old routine, and their battle-line consisted of the
most ordinary elements. The wing commanded by Decius
fought without success and the Latins conquered, whereupon
Decius ordered himself to be devoted to death by the pontiff
M.Valerius. This devotion inspired the whole army with
fresh courage and was at the same time believed to have a
magic effect upon it, since the consul had atoned for the whole
nation, which was now considered invincible. Hence, as tra-
dition states, fate turned all at once : the legions rallied and
gained the most complete victory.
LECTURE XXXVIII.
If Rome had succumbed in this war, the whole Roman army
would have been annihilated; but the Latins could not have
derived the same advantages from their victory as were gained
by the Romans: as Latium itself had no unity and was with-
out a great central point, the sovereignty of Italy would have
been undecided between it and Samnium. There is every
probability that Italy would then have fallen vmder the domi-
nion of foreigners ; it would perhaps have become a pennanent
prey of Pyrrhus or of the Carthaginians, and the Gauls would
have ravaged it incessantly. Had the Italian nations been
wise, the same state of things might have been developed as
t2
324 BATTLE OF TRTFANUM.
we afterwards find in existence, but it would liave taken place
without violence and destruction. Rome conquered Italy, but
this subjugation is nevertheless the most desirable thing that
could have happened to Italy.
The defeat of the Latins in the battle described in the
previous Lecture must have been complete, and so decisive,
that all were seized with a panic. Capua evidently submitted
at once, and the defeated did not even attempt to protect
themselves behind the Vulturnus, but at once retreated across
the Liris. Notwithstanding the general flight, however, a new
army formed itself at Vescia, an Ausonian town near the
Vescinian hills, and probably the modern S. Agata di Goti ;
there are indeed no ruins, but many sepulchral monuments; it
is situated on the natural road from the Liris to the Vulturnus,
the mo'intains being on the left of the road to Naples. The
flight of the Latins therefore cannot have been as disorderly
as Livy describes it. There the survivors assembled and were
reinforced by the contingents of the ancient Latin and Volscian
towns; the Volscians on the sea-coast and the Liris, the
Auruncans and Sidicines, that is, the whole country between
the Liris and Vulturnus was united, and oflTered a final battle
to the Romans near Trifanum, on the Liris, between Sinuessa
and Minturnae. The Romans immediately, and even before
completing their march, attacked the enemy, and gained a
decided victory, but with great loss : this second defeat of the
Latins completed the destruction of all their resources, espe-
cially as they had the broad Liris in their rear. The contingents
dispersed to their respective homes in order to defend them.
The Romans made immediate use of their success, and advanced
through the territory of the Latins towards Rome. Now
whether, as Livy relates, Latium was completely subdued as
early as that time, or afterwards, cannot be determined with
any certainty, for the Latins again appear as enemies in the
following year. There are many circumstances in antiquity of
which we can say, that they must have been such or such ; but
this is not the case -with events which are accidental : le vrai
vtest pas toujours vraiscvihlable. I will therefore not assert posi-
tively whether the Latins, in their first consternation, laid
down their arms and afterwards took them up again. But
however this may be, the senate pronounced the sentence, and
with lofty confidence in the certainty of success resolved that
CRUELTY OF THE ROMANS. 325
the ayer publicus of the Latin state, the Falernian district of
the Campanians, and part of the ager Privernas (Frivernum
seems not to have joined the Latin league) should be confiscated
and assigned to the plebeians viritim, that is to every one who
wore the toga pura ; assignments beyond the Vulturnus would
have been of no value to the Koraans. The allotment, how-
ever, was made on a small scale, owing to the plebeian nobles
having intrigued with the patricians against the multitude.
An annual revenue of 450 denarii was assigned to the Campa-
nian eqiutes, probably as a compensation for the ager Falernus,
and this sum had to be paid by the commonalty of Capua; it
has already been observed that these equites consisted of the
Samnites of the ancient colony, who anxious for their own
interest, had not taken any part in the war. In the year
following, the Latins again appeared in arms, probably because
the Komans, after receiving their deditio, had driven them to
despair by the fearfid punishment inflicted upon them. We
know, from several examples, with what cruelty the Romans
acted towards a revolted people, witness Pleminius at Locri, in
the Hannibalian war ; hence we may imagine that the garrisons
of each town were allowed every possible license, and such a
place had to suffer all the horrors of a town taken by the sword.
The Romans now made war against the Latins from the nearest
points of their own territory: the insurrection existed only in
the ancient Latium proper, at Tibur, Praeneste, and Pedum
on the one hand, and at Aricia, Lavinium, Antium and Veli-
trae on the other; Velitrae was originally Latin, afterwards
Volscian, and in the end it received a Roman colony ; Tusculum
and Ardea were Roman. These places form two masses, each
of which endeavoured to defend itself The two consuls Ti.
Aemilius ]\Iamercinus and Q. Publilius Philo fouirht against
them. Publilius had frustrated an attempt of the Latins to
maintain themselves in the field* ; Avhile Aemilius besieged
Pedum. There the Tiburtines, united with the people of
Pedum, had fortified themselves, and the year passed away
without any success. For reasons which are luiknown to us,
' In one of the MSS. we find in Campis Tincetanis instead of " in tlic fiold;"
but this has evidently heen entered after the Lecture by a student wlio b;nl left
a gap during the Lecture, and Nicbuhr probably al hides to thcCampi Fenectniii
mentioned bv Livv.,— Ed.
326 PUBLILIUS PIIILO AND HIS LEGISLATION.
a dictator was now appointed ; and Acmilius took this opportu-
nity of confemng that dignity upon his colleague Publilius.
There now followed a cessation of hostilities, whether in
consequence of a truce or from other causes, is utterly unknown,
and a course of internal legislation to curtail the rights of the
patricians engrossed every body's attention: this was the
necessary result of circumstances, and does not deserve the
blame which Livy attaches to it. The first law enacted, that
henceforth one of the censors should necessarily be a plebeian ;
this had in fact existed even before, for we know that C. Mar-
cius was the first plebeian censor ; but it now became law, and
was always observed : the second enacted that bills which were
to be brought before the centuries should previously be sanc-
tioned by the patricians whatever decree the centuries might
think it right to pass. Formerly the consuls had the initiation
in legislation; afterwards the praetor also had the same pri-
vilege, since he likewise might preside in the senate and
make proposals, his power being an emanation from that of the
consuls; but the aedilcs, though they had the sella curulis, did
not yet possess this right. A resolution passed by the senate
on the proposal of a magistrate was not yet law, but had to be
brought before the centuries and then before the curies ; this
mode of proceeding arose at the time when the comitia of the
centuries were instituted. The senate was formerly a patrician
committee, and even now, the majority was undoubtedly patri-
cian, though the plebeian element was already very strong.
One hundred and ten years had elapsed since the decemvirate,
and dviriug that period many patrician houses must have become
extinct, and others must have passed over to the plebes. From
Von Stetten's history of the noble families of Augsburg we
see, that out of fifty-one families, thirty-eight became extinct
in the course of 100 years, and that even then the surviving
families made the same claims, which a hundred years before
the llfty-onc families had been unable to establish. There was
accordingly no reason for leaving to the patricians of Kome
the veto which they had had before; and its abolition saved a
great many unnecessary disputes. The more the patricians
became reduced in numbers, and the more the ground tottered
under their feet, the greater was their jealousy and the ill hu-
mour which they introduced into the most important affairs of
the state. The change made by Publilius, therefore, was very
BREAKING UP OF THE LATIN STATE. 327
reasonable and necessary. But nothing was ever formally
abolished at Rome ; when old institutions were no longer found
useful, they were allowed to continue to exist as forms which
could do no harm. Hence it was now enacted, that whenever
the senate was going to pass a decree, the curies should sanction
it beforehand. It is probable that this sham sanction was given,
as in later times, by the lictors who were employed to represent
the curies. The third law was, ut plebiscita omnes Quirites
tenerent, and as I have explained before, affected such resolu-
tions of the government {^rj^icr^aTa) as were to be sanctioned
by the tribes instead of by the centuries. This, too, was a
mere matter of form, for whenever the tribunes, who had
previously consulted the consuls, were agreed among themselves,
the plebes never refused their sanction.
The following year, a.u. 417, was decisive, the army of
Pedum with its neighbours and the inhabitants of the sea-coast
being completely defeated by L. Furius Camillus and C. j\Iae-
nius, and Pedum being taken by storm, C. Maenius is described
by the ancients as the man who brought about the decision of
the war: he gained a victory on the river Astura, the site of
which is unknown ; a place of that name was situated between
Circeii and Antium. It is quite certain that Maenius con-
quered the enemies on the sea-coast, and Camillus those in the
interior; and an equestrian statue was erected to the former as
the conqueror of the Latin people. Henceforth no Latin army
appeared in the field, and each of the towns capitulated for
itself Livy's account of this seems to be extremely satisfactory,
and the difficulties involved in it escaped me for many years ;
but if we compare it with other authentic statements, it is by
no means really satisfactory; for he assigns some events to too
early a time, others are passed over, others again are described
very vaguely, and lastly he makes no distinction between the
free and the dependent municipium. Hence our knowledge of
the relations of the Latin towns to Home is very imperfect.
The whole of the Latin state was broken up ; but the lloman
senate determined to preserve the separate towns and render
them subservient to the interests of Rome: a plan which was
carried out in different ways but witli extraordinary wisdom.
Tusculum had from early times been in the enjoyment of the
Roman franchise, though not in its full extent, but now its
inhabitants received the full franchise; which was conferred
328 ANCIENT ISOPOLITE8.
upon the inhabitants of Lanuvium and Nomentum hkewise,
who thus became full citizens like the Tusculans, their popula-
tion being entered in the census lists as plebeians, and admitted
into the tribes : the Tusculans were incorporated with the tribus
Pupinia!^, the Lanuvians and probably the Velitemians were
formed into a new tribe, apparently the Scaptia; whether the
people of Nomentum constituted the tribus Maecia is uncertain .
The Ariclnes, too, are mentioned by Livy among those who
received the franchise; but according to an authentic account,
they were, even some years later, in the condition of a depen-
dent municipium. In this manner the places above mentioned
attained great honours, and no town produced so many illus-
trious plebeian families as Tusculum, though it was quite a
small place; I need only mention the Fulvii, Porcii, Corunca-
nii, Curii, and others'': certain places are particularly celebrated
for the number of great men they have produced. At
Lanuvium there was scarcely more than one family that
acquired any celebrity.
Other Latins likewise became citizens but not optimo jure,
and this is the beginning of the class of citizens sine suffragio,
which afterwards greatly increased and acquired a peculiar
importance. The isopolites of the ancient times were niuni-
cipes, and when they settled at Rome, they might exercise all
the rights of Roman citizens, their position being similar to
that of the citizens of the territory of Florence, previously to
the year 1530. Those places which had received the civitas
sine suffraffio, now stepped into this relation of isopolity. There
was this dillerence, that formerly those only were municipcs,
who came to Rome, but whose native place was perfectly
independent in its political relations with neighbouring com-
munities: this now ceased, and the separate towns which
became municipia were perfectly dependent in all their foreign
relations, whence Festus in his definition makes them form the
second class of municipia. Such municipia had theconnubium
with Rome and their own magistrates ; their inhabitants might
acquire landed property in the territory of Rome, but were
quite dependent upon Rome, like a son adopted by an-orjntio,
or a woman quae in monum convenerat ; and in their relations
with others they had no persona. Their rights in regard to
' Also Popinia; sec Fcstup, .v. v. rujiiiiia tribus p. 233 ed. Miillcr. — Eo.
' This is a remark of Cicero. — N.
NEW CLASS OF MUNICIPIA. 329
Rome were rights of conscience on the part of the Romans;
they might acquire the Roman franchise by being personally
admitted by the censors, but not being contained in the tribes,
they did not serve in the legions : they were however obliged
to furnish troops, not as allies (socii), but as Romani in separate
cohorts. We may now ask whether they were required to pay
the tributum, that is whether in case of the levying a tributuni
being decreed at Rome, they had to pay according to the
Roman census; and whether they had the right of sharing
with the Roman people burthens and advantages, or whether
their census was taken in their native places; the latter is
probable, because they furnished and paid their own troops, and
because the tributum was connected with the tribes. There
cannot of course be any doubt as to their obligation to contri-
bute. They unquestionably had a share in the public land,
and whenever the Romans received a general assignment, those
places too had a district assigned to them, with which they
might do as they pleased. In this manner only can we con-
ceive how Capua, after the war of Pyrrhus, could acquire such
an extensive possession.
The decision of the fate of Latium was an important epoch
to the Roman state, for it gave rise to an entirely new class of
municipia. The consequence was that many Romans purchased
estates in those districts; but an inconvenience soon arose,
inasmuch as these Romans had to submit to courts of justice
composed of people who ranked much lower than themselves.
This was afterwards remedied by the institution of a praefcc-
tura, which the ancients, and especially Livy, misinterpret, as
if the pracfectures had kept those towns in a complete state of
dependence, whereas their real object was to administer justice
to those who were full citizens of Rome. Such places were
called fura or conciliabula, which is the same as what is called
in America a town-house in any particular township: they
were both markets and places for the administration of justice.
A Roman, for example, who bought a slave at Capua according
to Capuan law, had no right to call the slave his own at Rome;
but when the purchase had been made in the presence of the
praefect and according to Roman law it was unassailable.
The fate of the other Latin towns was very severe. The
ancient senators of" Velitrac, probably of "\'olscian descent,
were led into exile beyond the Tiber, together with a large
330 ROMAN COLONIES.
number of their fellow citizens, and a new colony was sent to
Velitrae. A port colony was established at Antium; its
inhabitants received the inferior Eoman franchise, and the
Eoman colonists by settling there entered into the same relation.
The Antiatans were deprived of their armed ships {interdictum
mari), for the Eomans hated piracy; and this was the easiest
way of getting rid of it, it being indifferent to the Romans
whether the commerce of the Antiatans suffered or not.
Among the remaining places, the connubium and commercium,
as well as the common diets {concilia)^ were forbidden, just as
in Achaia, Phocis, and Boeotia. No person belonging to one
place was allowed to purchase land in another; but each town
had its fixed burthens, so that if in one of them, in conse-
quence of any calamity the price of landed property fell, the
distress was very great, for the people of that place could sell
only among themselves or to Roman citizens, the commercium
existing with the Romans alone. This was the cause of the
decay of those places, for as Romans settled in them the dis-
tress became greater and greater, so that some of them entirely
perished. Praeneste and Tibur alone maintained themselves:
they were agro multati, but in the time of Polybius they again
appear in possession of the ancient ^'m5 municipii. From Livy's
accoimt it might be inferred, that the ancient alliance with the
Laurentines had been preserved; and it is very possible that
the same was done in the case of Praeneste and Tibur, so that
they would have retained the right of municipium although
their domain land was taken from them. Both possessed large
and fertile territories, and must have had great vital power and
energy : Praeneste tried more than once to shake off the Roman
yoke. The punishment of isolation was also inflicted on all
those places which at the close of the fourth century were in
alliance with Latium; it extended moreover to the Aecpiians,
who had undoubtedly been members of the Latin confederacy.
The concilia remained forbidden, for the feriae Lafinae,
formerly the general diet, became a mere shadow, a conventus
(7rav7]yvpi<i) for the celebration of the games.
Henceforth the Romans applied this system Avherever they
wanted to break a conquered people, as they afterwards did in
Achaia. The towns thereby became entirely separate ; the
feeling of unity died away, they looked upon each other as
strangers, and such a separation is usually followed by hostile
POLICY OF THE KOMANS. 331
feelings, as in Southern and Northern Dithmarsch. The Romans
were obliged to have recourse to this Machiavellian system, as
they placed no garrisons in the towns. It was in this manner,
that the grand duke Peter Leopold of Tuscany, who kept no
troops, separated his subjects and thereby demoralised them.
The Latin colonies, it appears, were separated from the rest
of Latium, whereas they formerly had been more closely con-
nected with Latium, and were not in any direct relation w^ltli
Rome; they now became a peculiar class of subjects, which had
not hitherto existed at all. From this time forward Rome
founded Latin colonies on her own account, and they deserve
the admiration with which Machiavelli speaks of them, for they
were the invention of great political tact. They were increased
to the number of thirty, just as there had formerly been thirty
Latin to^vns. The origin of these colonies was in the contract
between the two nations: a district conquered by both in
common used to be divided between them ; but districts which
could not be thus divided, were set apart for colonies. Rome
indeed foujided several colonies of her own; which received
Caerite rights, but the former were called Latin colonies:
Romans might settle in them, but they thereby stepped out of
their tribes, though they might re-enter them whenever they
pleased. Afterwards these colonies joined the Latin towns,
and the thirty Latin places mentioned by Dionysius before the
battle of the lake Regillus, were unquestionably the places
named in the treaty of peace between Rome and Latium ; some
of them were those towns which are said to have been founded
by Tarquinius Superbus as Latin colonies, and which occur as
such in the Hannibalian war. Now there can be no question
that the Romans who had thus joined the Latins, obtained the
equal franchise. The number of citizens in the Latin colonies
was much greater than in the Roman ones. At a later time
the Italians were admitted to a share in these colonics, and
they sometimes obtained a portion of the domain land, so that
the colonies became the great means of spreading the Roman
dominion; and the Latin language, being the political language
of the Romans, suppressed and supplanted that of the ancient
inhabitants. They were from the first dependent upon Rome,
and without any bond of union among themselves. Until
the downfall of Latium the number of Latin colonies was
insignificant, but from that time they began to increase. The
332 INCREASED D03I1NION OF ROME.
inhabitants of all these places were bound to serve in the Roman
armies, and Rome prescribed to them what numbers they had
to furnish ; they were one of the principal means of the success
of the Romans in the wars against the Samnites, for the Romans
surroimded themselves with these colonies as with frontier
fortresses. Several thousand men had a district assigned to
them with the obligation of maintaining it; any Roman who
wished to go out as a colonist, might do so, and others were
added from Latium and other districts. The laws to be ob-
served were prescribed by the Romans : the ancient inhabitants
remained as a commonalty and undoubtedly formed the
majority of tradespeople, but in a comparatively short time,
they became amalgamated with the colonists, and these germs
grew into a lofty tree. At first Rome etablished such colonies
on the Liris in Campania, they were then extended into
Umbria, and continued to be pushed onwards. This two-fold
manner of founding colonies and conferring the franchise,
sometimes with and sometimes without the suffrage, was the
means whereby Rome, from being a city, became a state com-
prising all Italy. The colonists paid no personal taxes, which
devolved entirely upon strangers, they only paid the tax of
the ager ex formula.
The revolution which arose out of the conquest of the Latins
was immense in regard to its consequences: even two years
before, the destruction of Rome by the Latins was not an
impossibility, but now her power was strengthened by those
resources of Latium which had not perished in the struggle :
but for the reasons already mentioned, the period which now
followed, was for most of the Latin towns, a period of decay.
Among the Campanians, likewise, the Romans produced
divisions : they distinguished the Campanian populus (the
equites who received compensation) from the plebes. The re-
lation in whicli they stood to the Hcrnicans was not altered, or
if it was altered, the latter had received a compensation in mo-
ney in the victories of the Romans. Capua, Cumae, Suessulla,
Atella, Fundi and Formiae became free municipia, that is,
isopolite towns, and the Romans accordingly recognised, at
least nominally, their perfect equality.
THE FIRST PLEBEIAN PRAETOR. 333
LECTURE XXXIX.
Our accounts do not enable U3 to form a clear idea of the in-
ternal condition of Rome : the war had cost her such heavy
sacrifices, that, though her dominion extended from Sutrium
and Nepet as far as Campania, the bleeding and exhaustion still
continued for a long time: this renders the tranquillity which
now followed quite intelligible, for all felt the want of peace.
In the year after the decisive victory over the Latins (a.U.418)
the praetoi'ship was divided between patricians and plebeians,
on condition that certain forms should be observed, and from
this time forward the praetorship, generally speaking, alterna
ted between patricians and plebeians. This can be historically
demonstrated : deviations from the law do indeed occur, but
only serve to explain the rule. Q. Publilius Philo was the first
plebeian praetor, and there may perhaps have been some con-
nection between this law and the three which bear his name.
When the second praetorship, commonly called the praetura
peregrina, was added, one was always held by a patrician, and
the other by a plebeian, just as afterwards when the number of
praetors was increased to four, two were taken from each order.
But when their number was raised to six, the equal division
could no longer be kept vip, because the number of the patri-
cians was ever decreasing. This law was the completion of the
legislation of Licinius, for now the two orders were really placed
on a footing of equality : great was tlie progress which had
thus been made; for the fact that the patricians still continued
to choose the intetreges exclusively from among themselves was
a matter of no consequence. The repetition of the interregna
at this time shows indeed, that the patricians still indulged in
dreams of evading the law, for the charms of what they wished
to gain increased as the number of those who laid claim to it
diminished ; but these attempts do not appear to have called
forth any violent reaction : the power of circumstances and
truth were irresistible.
Abroad Rome had no important wars to carr3''on; a trifling-
one which broke out at this time was welcome to tliem, its
object being to complete the compactness of their state as far
as the Liris and Campania. The two banks of the Liris were
334 WAR AMONG THE AURUNCANS.
inhabited by Auruncans (the Greeks call them Ausonians, and
so also docs Livy when he follows Greek authorities, such as
Fabius or Dionysius), an Oscan people. During the Latin war
they had sided with the enemies of Rome, but afterwards they
had submitted as subjects, and now were under the protection
of Rome. The conquest of the Sidicines had been left by the
Romans to the Samnites, but an arrangement seems to have
been entered into, by which the Samnites allowed the Sidicines
to continue to exist, in order not to lose the barrier between
themselves and the Romans. This created a jealousy between
the Romans and Samnites, and it could not in fact be other-
wise: [the Samnite conquests in those districts had been the
main cause why the Volsciang attached themselves to the Latins
and afterwards to the Romans ; for at that time the Samnites
were more dangeroiis to them than the Romans. Napoleon
once said in a diplomatic discussion : '■^ il faut de petits etatsentre
les (/rands" and on the same principle the large states allowed
the small ones to make war upon one another, because this
might lead to events calling for their powerful interference.
These small states were, so to speak, '■'■pour les coups d'epingles
qui precedent les coups de canons." The Sidicines united with
the Auruncans of Gales attacked the other Auruncans, and this
led the Romans to march against them. The latter carried on
the war with great prudence ; they conducted it with lukc-
warmncss, for it was anything but their interest to press the
Sidicines, lest they should throw themselves into the arms of
the Samnites. They took Gales, which is situated between
Teanura and Gasilinum, and established a strong colony in the
place. Their system now was to establish themselves by means
of such colonies in the country between the Liris and Vultur-
nus, so far as it was not already occupied by the Samnites ; and
this system they followed out with great zeal and success : the
colony of Gales connected the ever suspected Gampania with
the dominion of Rome herself. A second colony was founded
soon after at Fregcllae, which became so remarkable in the
seventh century for its pride and its misfortunes; it was situa-
ted on the spot where the Liris is crossed by the Latin road
which leads through Tusculum to the towns of the Hernicans,
and thence by Teanum to Gapua. The establishment of this
colony was a true usurpation : the Samnites were masters of
the country as far as Monte Gasino, they had there subdued
DESTRUCTION OF THE LATIN CONFEDEHACY. 335
the Volscians and destroyed Fregellae ; by their treaty with
Kome they were permitted to make conquests in those districts,
and even on their abandonincr them the Romans had no rio-ht
to take possession of them. The Samnites had also taken Sora,
and they had undoubtedly established themselves there with
intentions just as ambitious as those of Eome. The Romans
concluded a treaty of isopolity with the Caudines,and yet both
nations were convinced that a war between them was unavoid-
able. Under these circumstances, the Romans unquestionably
adopted the same fluctuating policy which renders the history
of the sixteenth century so interesting; the truth being: ^Hl y
a trois sortes d'amis, ceux qui nous aiment, des amis indifferens,
et des amis qui nous detestentT
It is certainly not a mere accident, when we observe in his-
tory that at certain times similar changes take place in countries
far distant from each other : these changes in the one which
produce a new state of things, cannot be the result of the changes
in the other, because they occur simidtaneously and in different
countries; we recognise in them the hand of Providence which
guides the fate of men and the development of all nations as
one great whole. The destruction of the Latin confederacy
and the extension of the power of Rome is an epoch of that
kind, and is quite similar to the period about the close of the
fifteenth century. It is of great interest to compare the two
periods : it is as if the stages of development through which
particular countries and nations can pass by themselves had
come to an end, and as if all their circumstances were to be
changed by new relations ; for on such occasions we find na-
tions joining one another which had never before been in con-
tact, and states which till then had been most prosperous, begin
to decay as if the autumn of their existence had set in ; the
spirit of the most eminent nations becomes extinct never to re-
turn : a change manifests itself in inclinations and tastes, and
in the whole of the ordinary and daily habits of life ; nay even
the physical nature of man undergoes alterations, for new forms
of disease make their appearance. Such was the case about the
end of the fifteenth century, for then the prosperity of the
Itahan cities disappeared, just as at the time of which we arc
now speaking, the states of Greece fell into decay. The very
things which had been the cause of the prosperity of Greece,
the equilibrium of the many small states, became the cause of
336 GAULS AND CARTHAGINIANS.
her decay, no one single state being powerful enough to main-
tain the independence of the whole. The circumstances of Italy
in the fifteenth century were of precisely tlie same kind, for
Florence and Venice stood by the side of each other with equal
power, and if Venice had been strong enough to rule, a new
and more beautiful order of things would have been the result.
The battle of Chaeronea and the destruction of the Latin league
occurred in the same year; and this simultaneously shows us
the hand of Providence that rules the affairs of the world accor-
ding to its own counsels.
The Eomans and Samnites were apparently equal to each
other, and there were reasons for believing that a struggle be-
tween them would lead to the destruction of both, so that
foreigners or barbarians would reap the advantages; for in the
north the Gauls were already masters of a great part of Italy,
and in the south the Carthaginians were threatening. Timo-
leon, it is true, had a short time before checked the extension
of their power in Sicily, but they were already masters of Sar-
dinia with the exception of one mountain, and it was impossible
to prevent them from acquiring sooner or later the islands of
Sicily and Corsica. There was accordingly every appearance
that after the mutual destruction of the Eomans and the
Samnites, Italy would be divided between the Gauls and
Cartliaginians.
Until then no political relation had existed between the
Greeks and Eomans ; but an intercourse with the inhabitants
of Magna Graecia and the Siceliots seems to have been main-
tained : I believe that even the literature of Magna Graecia
exercised a much greater influence upon the Eomans than is
commonly supposed, and at that time a knowledge of Greek
was probably nothing extraordinary at Eome. Granting that
Pythagoras did not become a Eoman citizen, since, perhaps,
he is not even an historical personage, yet the Eomans were at
an early period acquainted with the Pythagorean philosophy
and entertained a veneration for it. Connections with the
Greeks of neighbouring places are often mentioned ; Cumae
aiforded ample opportunities, and the Sibylline books existed
at Eome as well as at Cumae. The first embassies to the oracle
of Delphi are fabulous, but there can be no doubt that the Eo-
mans did consult that oracle. The connection of the Eomans
with ]\Iassllia at the time of the Gallic conquest, and with the
ALEXANDER OF EPIEUS. 337
Lipariots, tlie guardians of the Tyrrhenian sea against the pi-
rates, are the only other facts relating to the intercourse of the
Greeks and Romans which we know for certain : all the rest is
fabulous. But the first political affiiir in which the Romans as
a state came in contact with the Greeks, belongs to this time ;
for the treaty with Massilia was probably nothing but a com-
mercial treaty, as I conclude, more particularly from the cir-
cumstance that Massilia and Carthage were hostile to each other
on account of the fisheries, as Justin relates ; by which we must
understand either the coral fisheries on the coasts of Africa, or
the tunny fisheries on the Italian shores. The inhabitants of
Provence, throughout the middle ages, were in possession of
the coral fisheries on the coast of Africa. The first political
connection between the Romans and the Greeks was the treaty
between Rome and Alexander, king of Epirus; for the Epirots
may be regarded as Greeks, since notwithstanding their Pelas-
gian origin they had become Hellenised. Alexander had been
invited to come to Italy by the Tarentines in the year A.U. 420,
or Olymp. 112.
The glory of Magna Graecia had already disappeared; and
most of the Greek towns, as Posidonia, Pyxus, Caidonia, Hip-
ponium, Terina and others, had been conquered by the Luca-
nians and Bruttians , some of them remained in the possession
of the conquerors, others were abandoned : only a i'ew main-
tained their independence, but had to fight for their existence.
Rhegium, Locri, and the once flourishing Croton, had been
laid waste by the Dionysii of Syracuse, who had abandoned
those places indeed, but they were lying half in ruins and were
but partially restored, as Delhi and Ispahan are at the yjresent
time. Thurii and Metapontum defended themselves with dif-
ficulty against the Lucanians; their territory was almost entirely
lost, and they were struggling like the Italian towns in the sixth
and seventh centuries against the Longobards. The only Greek
town which, notwithstanding the general misfortune, was still
in the enjoyment of the highest state of prosperity, was Taren-
tum; this city too, soon after the period of the expedition of
Xerxes, had suffered a great defeat from tlie neighbouring
Messapians, but had soon recovered from it; and at the time
when the tyrants of Syracuse and the Lucanians threatened
the other towns, Tarentum was in a thriving condition; it was
undoubtedly increasing by the immigration of numerous Greeks
VOL. I. Z
338 TARENTUM.
from the other towns, which were either destroyed or threatened.
A parallel to this occurs in the growing prosperity of the Nether-
lands and Switzerland in the time of the Thirty Years' War;
the flourishing condition of those countries arose mainly from
the distressing state of Germany, industry and commerce taking
refiige in them. In this manner, Tarentum became wealthy
and powerful ; it had, moreover, the additional advantages
which a neutral state between two belligerent parties alw^ays
has, and the rulers of the Tarentine state must have been men
of great wisdom.
The Tarentincs had acquired great wealth through their
industry, commerce, wool-manufactures, their skill as dyers, and
also from their salt works ; they had a powerful navy : and with
the exception of Syracuse, no one of all the Greek cities, not
even Rhodes, was as wealthy as Tarentum. Its inhabitants,
according to their circumstances, were perfectly peaceable, and
consisted of excellent seamen. There is no doubt that, as is the
case with the people of the modern Taranto, navigation and
fishing were their principal pursuits, a kind of idle busy life
which is the delight of the Greeks and southern Italians: a
Neapolitan is perfectly happy when he is rocking on the waves
in his fishing boat. Nature has blessed the country about
Tarentum with every thing in abundance. There is perhaps
no part of the European seas so rich in fish and shell-fish as the
bay of Tarentum ; and the poor Tarentine leads a truly princely
life in idleness, for he requires only bread, salt, and olives,
which he can always easily procure. The territory of Taren-
tum was not so large as to lead the people to devote themselves
much to agriculture. The tribes of the Latin race, the Etrus-
cans, Umbrians, and Sabellians, on the other hand, were born
husbandmen; and an Italian husbandman, who has an heredi-
tary piece of land is thoroughly good, honest and respectable,
while the people who live in towns are good for nothing.
Those Italians who are not descended from Greeks are not at all
fit for a seafaring life, and the Roman coasts were provided
with fish by the southern towns, which continued to be Greek
even in the middle ages. The Greeks arc bad husbandmen,
and were so even in antiquity ; they cannot be compared to the
Italians as agriculturists; the work of Theophrastus indeed
shews great knowledge of agriculture, but the Greeks did not
feel happy in that occupation ; they liked to cultivate the olive
ARCHYTAS. 339
and vine but not corn. The soil of Greece, too, is in a great
many parts almost unfit for the growth of corn, being better
suited for the cultivation of olives. A Greek is cheerful and
happy as a fisherman, and makes an excellent sailor.
The Tarentines were quite a democratic people like the
Athenians in Piraeus, as is observed by Aristotle ; and the state
was very rich through the variety of its revenues. With these
large means they were enabled to raise armies of mercenaries,
as was then the custom throughout Greece, and as was the
case in Holland in the seventeenth century. General opinion
is not favorable towards the Tarentines: it is true that at the
time when they became involved in war with the Komans, they
were an eflfeminate and unwarlike people; but the censure
which is usually thrown upon them arises from a peculiarity of
human nature, which leads us, when a powerful state or indi-
vidual falls, to seek for the cause of the fall in the conduct of
the unfortunate, instead of feeling sympathy. I am convinced
that next to Athens, Tarentum produced the wisest and most
intellectual men in antiquity, and that the state made excellent
use of them. A citj'- that produced an Archytas, the Leibnitz
of his time, a man who possessed all knowledge then attainable,
and was at the same time a crreat o-encral and statesman, — and
neither envied nor banished him (as the Ephesians did with
their Hermodorus) but raised him seven times to the office of
supreme commander, shoidd not be censured: the spirit of
Greece must have dwelt in it in all its beauty. The miserable
anecdotes which Athenaeus for instance relates of the Taren-
tines, are refuted by that one fact alone. They do not deserve
blame any more than the great characters who are reviled in
Schiller's Maria Stuart; a fact for which I cannot excuse
Schiller, notwithstanding the beautiful poetry. It is certainly
possible that Archytas and the other Tarentine statesmen
looked more to the interests of their own city than to those of
the Greeks in general (the Athenians alone rose to the moral
height which enabled them to feel for all Greece); he may
have kept up a good understanding with the tyrants of Syra-
cuse, with more regard to the advantage than to the dignity
of his native city; but these arc faults which the noblest men
when placed at the helm of a state in unfortunate times have
been unable to avoid. The Tarentines are blamed for having
made use of foreign soldiers and armies, first of Archidauuis
z 2
340 MERCENARY TROOPS.
of Sparta, next of Alexander of Epirus, then of Cleonymus,
Agatlioclcs, and at last of Pyrrhus; whicli Strabo considers
a sign of cowardice and imprudence; and lie at the same time
adds the remark, that the Tarentines were ungrateful towards
their protectors. But during the period that followed the Pe-
loponnesian war, it was a general evil that wars were no longer
carried on by armies of citizens, but by hired mercenaries : and
this circumstance must be accounted for by the fact that wars
had become more extensive and bloody, whereby the ancient
race of citizens was destroyed. The ravages of war had made
large numbers of men homeless, who wandered about, especially
in Greece (as in modern times in Switzerland), by thousands,
and were one of the greatest of plagues. It had long been
a fair custom in Greece to leave the inhabitants of a town
taken or destroyed in the enjoyment of their freedom, and not
to sell them as slaves; but as all their property was taken from
them, they were forced to gain their living in any w*ay
they could : in the Thirty Years' War likewise, it became from
year to year easier to find troops ^ ; such soldiers being con-
stantly in arms were far superior to the militia, and when once
they had begun to be employed, the militia soon became
unable to resist the enemy. A city like Tarentum coidd not
raise legions ; which can be formed only where there exists a
respectable and numerous class of husbandmen, and hence
there are countries where absolutely nothing can be done but
to hire mercenaries, as was the case at Florence when the
militia had got out of practice : but the same system would
be destructive to other states. Tarentum therefore was under
the necessity of making use of mercenaries^ and it would have
been contrary to their notion of freedom to keep up a standing
army; they acted wisely in confining themselves to their city
militia when they could do without other troops. W^ienever
there was a necessity for enlisting troops, numbers of homeless
persons 2 were always to be got in Greece about Taenarus;
they were however untrustworthy and faithless, since they
followed him who paid best, like the condotti in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries ; and a condottiere might easily act the
part of a traitor or set himself up as tyrant. Hence it was
much more prudent to engage the services of princes with
Tl6\ffj.os vdKffxov rp(<p(i. ' Latrones, niado(p6pot
WAR BETWEEN TARENTUM AND LUCANIA. 341
their disciplined armies, for the honor of such a prince afforded
at least some guarantee. Why should the Tarentines have
disturbed their commerce and trade, as they were enabled to
manage things differently? Such a hired army might indeed
become dangerous, but so long as it was possible they took
wise precautions: Alexander of Epirus afforded them real
advantages, but Pyrrhus did not. The English system of
levying armies has likewise been censured, but only by persons
who had no knowledge of the circumstances of the country.
There is nothing that deserves censure in the conduct of the
Tarentines except the insolent manner in which they drew
upon themselves the war with Rome, but we shall assuredly
have no reason to be severe towards them, if we consider the
exasperation which drove them to it.
About this time they became involved in a war with the
Lucanians, who had attacked Heraclea and Metapontum, which
towns were under their protection. The Lucanians had
already lost that part of Calabria, which was afterwards called
Bruttium, for its inhabitants consisting of the Pelasgian serfs
of the Greek towns had united into one people, and refused to
obey the Lucanians, who were wise enough to recognise their
independence and remain their friends. But in order to in-
demnify themselves, the Lucanians turned their arms against
Tarentum, attempting to subdue Heraclea. In these circum-
stances the Tarentines invited to their assistance Archidamus
of Sparta, who with the unhappy Phocian exiles had gone to
Crete; but he fell in an engagement against the Lucanians, on
the same day on which the battle of Chaeronea was lost. A
few years afterwards they took into their pay Alexander the
Molossian, of Epirus, a brother of Olympias, the wife of
Philip. Philip had given him his daughter Cleopatra in
marriage, and had allowed him an appanage: his kingdom was
very small; Philip who everywhere contrived to gain strong
positions, kept the fortress of Ambracia for himself, and at
first gave to Alexander only three small towns in Cassopia, on
the Thesprotian coast; afterwards, when Philip had extended
his empire and every where put himself in possession of the
fortified places, he raised Alexander to the throne of the
Molossians, among whom he found but little to do. Philip
followed the same policy in regard to his relations, as Napoleon
did ill reference to his brothers: they were to be kings, but
342 DEFEAT OF ALEXANDER AT PANDOSIA.
without power; so that tliey were notliing else than satraps
without paying tribute. It was for this reason that Philip
retained Ambracia for himself. During the time that Alex-
ander of Macedonia was engaged in his Eastern expedition,
Alexander the Molossian was under the authority of the inso-
lent old Antipater; he was not on good terms with the
]\Iacedonian king, and according to the accounts of the ancients,
it was jealousy of the glory of his nephew, that induced him
to go to Italy ; he is said to have complained bitterly that fate
had made him fight against men, while his nephew was opposed
only by women. As the Macedonian was not inclined to allow
our Alexander to extend his dominion in Epirus, the latter
received the invitation of the Tarentines with great pleasure.
He accordingly went to Italy, but with intentions quite differ-
ent from those with which the Tarentines had invited him :
they expected that he, as a small prince, with a well trained
army^ would protect them, but Alexander went over with a
desire of conquering a kingdom for himself He was sviccessful ;
subdued the Messapians and Salleutines, made a diversion to
Posidonia, delivered the Greek towns, and united them into a
confederacy, of which, he of course, became the aTparrj'yo'i
and Tjje/jicov. Being in the service of the Tarentines, he was
never in want of subsidies, like the nations who in the
last century were in the service of England under Walpole;
but the history of his exploits is almost entirely lost, and it is
only in the Greek grammarians such as Tzetzes, that a few
interesting statements are preserved. His success was brilliant,
so long as he acted in concord with the Tarentines; but when
he betrayed his ulterior intentions, and wished to assume the
title of king of Italy (of course in the narrower sense of the
term), the Tarentines were exasperated and dispensed with his
services. Whether they concluded a separate peace with the
Lucanians is uncertain ; but as the diet of the Greek towns
met at Heraclea, although Tarentum was the most powerful
and illustrious of those towns, the diet seems to have been
transferred by Alexander, which clearly indicates a rupture
between him and the Tarentines. However, as his power was
now too small, he seems to have carried on the war as a mere
adventurer like Charles XII. : he made predatory excursions,
and Pandosia in the heart of Lucania became his Pultawa;
there he was surrounded by the Lucanians and Bruttians: his
RELATIONS OF ROME WITH SA3INIUM. 343
army was divided, both parts were annihilated, and he himself
was slain. He had previously concluded a treaty with the
Eomans, which is incidentally mentioned by Livy, but uu-
doubtedly on the authority of Eoman annals, and this treaty
is a proof of the manner in which the Eomans made their
calculations: they had nothing to fear from him, and sought
his alliance only for^the purpose of overawing the Samnites,
who had concluded a treaty with Tarentum. A real alliance,
however, did not exist between Eome and Alexander, for the
treaty between Eome and the Samnites was still in force.
So far as we know the circumstances, we must blame the
Eomans for having favoured a foreigner in preference to
kindred people of their own peninsula. The Samnites indeed
are not mentioned among those who in the end waged war
against Alexander, but his predatory excursions had brought
him into contact with them : at Posidonia they fought against
each other. It is interesting to speculate on what would have
been the probable consequences, if Alexander had established
a kingdom in Italy; it is likely that he would only have
facilitated the victories of the Eomans, and hence their treaty
with him was very prudent, though not praiseworthy.
LECTUEE XL.
The ancient historians had no difficulty in forming a clear
conception of the relations then existing between Eome and
Saranium, as we see especially in the excerpts de Legationibus
from Dionysius : each nation saw in the measures of the other,
nothing but fraud and hostility, and on the whole they may not
have been very wrong in these suspicions. The Eomans had
kept the nations that dwelt about Campania, partly in the
condition of isopolites, such as the Fundanians and Formians,
and partly in a state of dependence, as the Privernatans. These
latter endeavoured to shake off the yoke; for the franchise
without the suffrage was only a burthen for them, and. the
advantages which they enjoyed were small in proportion to
344 INSURRECTION OF PRIVERNUM.
what they cost ; the light of acquiring landed property within
the Roman dominion, was no benefit to a city which had itself
a fertile territory. The Romans imagined that this insurrection
had been stirred up by the Samnites; and there can be no
doubt that every one dissatisfied with the government of Rome
met with sympathy from the Samnites. The Privernatans
were joined by the Fundanians, one of whose nobles, Vitruvius
Vaccus, was the leader in this movement; but the Fundanians
did not persevere, and withdrew from the contest. The
Privernatans were severely judged by the Romans, of wliich
a very interesting account is given by Livy and Valerius
Maximus : the ambassadors of the Privernatans were asked to
state conscientiously what punishment they had deserved ; they
answered that they deserved the punishment due to those who
struggled for liberty. The consuls received this answer favor-
ably, and then asked whether they would keep peace if they
were pardoned, whereupon they replied: "If you give us an
honorable peace we will keep it, but if you give us a degrading
one we shall break it." The consuls then said, that men like
these deserved to be Roman citizens, and the franchise was
accordingly conferred upon them. The same story occurs in
the excerpts de Legationihus of Dionysius, but many years
earlier, and there is perhaps no foundation at all for it. It is
related by Valerius Maximus indeed, but he is no authority
whatever, being only an echo of Livy. The story is perhaps
an invention of the gens Aemilia or Plautia which had the
patronage of Privernum, and bore the surname of Privernas,
the annalists having afterwards inserted it where they thought
fit.^ A few years afterwards, the Privernatans, according to
an unequivocal expression in a plebiscitum", were again in a
state of insurrection ; bi;t this has been eifaced from history in
order to preserve the interest of the old story. At a later time,
Privernum was in possession of the franchise, and that of a
higher kind than the mere Caerite franchise, for they formed
the tribus Ufentina. Fundi and Formiae too were severely
punished. This is the natural connection of the events so
pathetically narrated by Livy : the generosity which he ascribes
' The Plant! i pix'scrvcil upon their coins tlic recollection of the conquest of
Privernum as the most glorious eveut in tlie histoiy of their family. Rom.
Hist. Ill, p. 175. L. Aemilius Mamorcimis Privemas, and C. Plautius Decianus
triiimphcii OA-er the Privernatans. — En. ' Liv. vni. 37.
PEACE MADE WITH THE GAULS. 345
to the senate is quite incredible, and his account of it a piece
of mere declamation.
There is no doubt that the Samnites secretly promoted the
disturbances among the subjects of Rome, and they openly
demanded the evacuation of Fregellae. Justice was un-
questionably on their side, for the Romans had no right to
establish a colony in a place which had been conquered by the
Samnites, although at the time when Rome sent her colony
thither, it was not in the hands of the Samnites ; for otherwise
they would, perhaps, after all not liave sent it. But in such
cases justice cannot always be done : wrong and injustice are
often very different things. On this occasion, I should not like
to cast a stone at the leaders of the Romans for not giving up
a place which they had taken in a deserted district, even if
their taking it was an act of positive injustice. The Samnites
were rapidly spreading in that district; and Fregellae, at the
head of a bridge on the upper Liris, was a strong point for
defending the country against them; and the advantage which
the Romans might derive from its possession was much less
than the disadvantage to them of Fregellae being in the hands
of the Samnites. As soon as Rome gave it up, the Latin road
would have been opened, and her allies, the Hernicans, Latins,
and undoubtedly the Aequians also, would have been exposed
to imminent danger. The case was similar to that of 1803,
after the peace of Amiens, when the evacuation of Malta by the
English was demanded by everybody : the English could not
give it up, though they had promised it, which surely they
ought not to have done. The slow movements of the Samnite
senate might, perhaps, have been some security against any
abuse that might be made of Fregellae.
The outbreak of the war was so anxiously looked forward to,
that even two years before it took place, a Roman army was
encamped on the frontier, it being expected that the Samnites
would make an attack upon Fregellae. By the treaty with
Alexander of Epirus the Romans hoped to secure a friend, and
they now tried to protect themselves against the enemy, still
more by a peace with the Gauls. The latter had now been
settled in Italy for upwards of sixty years, the migrations
across the Alps became every year less numerous, the commotion
among those nations had ceased , and the Ga;ils who were never
an entirely savage people did not fail to acquire a certain
346 ITALIAN EMBASSIES
civilisation; they devoted themselves to agriculture and became
a harmless agricultural race, just like the Goths under Vitigis,
who were likewise a defenceless host of peasants, whoni Totilas
was obliged to prepare for war by special training. The Gauls
had before them two roads to the South of Italy, — the marshes
about the Arno and the wild part of the Apennines protected
Etruria; — the one down the Tiber through Umbria towards
Latium and Campania, and the other through Picenum along
the coast of the Adriatic towards Apulia. Upon this latter
road they must have repeatedly attempted to advance southward :
but it was more difficult than the other road, because they were
opposed by the Sabellians in the Abruzzo, Now the Komans,
in order not be distiu-bed by an attack of the Gauls, which the
Samnites might easily have brought about, concluded a formal
peace with them, which Livy passes over in silence, but which
is expressly mentioned by Polybius, and which the Romans
undoubtedly purchased with money, for why should the Gauls
have promised the Romans to remain at peace?
This anxiety of the Romans to protect themselves for the
future, renders it highly probable to me that the old statement
of their having, in conjunction with the other Italian nations,
sent an embassy to Alexander at Babylon, is not a mere fiction.
Alexander had put a limit to his conquests in the East, and to
march Southward against the Ethiopian nations would have
been senseless. It was naturally expected, when he returned
from India that he would direct his arms against the West;
for no one was so foolish as to believe that he would all at once
put a stop to his conquests. Many persons are of opinion, that
the people in the West knew nothing at all of the Eastern
conquests of Alexander ; but the Western nations were not so
much isolated from the rest of the world as is generally thought :
the Romans must have known of the expedition of Alexander,
just as Clapper ton and Dcnham found people in the interior of
Soudan, acquainted with the insurrection of Greece and with
the co-operation of individual Europeans in it. During the
Seven Years' War, when my father was in Sana, people there
had a very distinct knowledge of the great war that was being
carried on in Europe, and especially of the war between the
English and French ; nay, one intelligent Arab of Sana brought
forward a map, and made enquiries about the geographical
position of those European states. This happened in the very
TO ALEXANDER OF MACEDON. 347
heart of Arabia ; and we roust remember tbat the modem Arabs
are a degraded and ignorant people, which cannot be said of
the nations of antiquity. The means of communication, more-
over, were far more easy at that time than in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, when, nevertheless, there existed communi-
cations with the remotest parts of Asia. I believe that the
Komans had accurate information about Persia and India: it is
true they did not yet possess geographical works, but they
undoubtedly had maps of the world like those which existed
in Greece, and it is certain that at that time some Eomans
received a Greek education, as seems to be proved by the very
surname of P. Sempronius Sophus. No one doubts that the
Samnites and Lucanians sent ambassadors to Alexander,
although later writers call in question the statement that the
Eomans did go ; the Lucanians sent their embassy in order to
avert his wrath on account of the death of his uncle; the
Samnites, in order to secure his friendship if he should come
to Italy; and in like manner the Komans were anxious not to
offend him at least, though they might not hope to win his
friendship. Even the Iberians sent an embassy to him as soon
as they heard of his preparations against Carthage. Livy hits
upon the singular idea that the Eomans had perhaps never
heard of him. It is possible that the Eomans concealed the
embassy from pride, or that the Greeks invented it from vanity ;
but it would be necessary to suppose that the latter was done
at a time when the Eomans were already so powerful that the
homage of Eome could increase the glory of Alexander. But
Clitarchus, through whom the account of the embassy has come
down to us, was an elegant author ; he wrote immediately after
the death of Alexander, at the time when the Eomans were
still engaged in the doubtful contest with the Samnites.
Aristobulus and Ptolemaeus Lagi, who far surpass him in
historical fidelity, speak of Tyrrhenian and Samnite ambas-
sadors, and the former of these names comprises the Eomans
also, just as the name of the Samnites applies to all the Sabellian
nations. If Alexander's life had been spared, he would have first
directed his arms against Sicily, and thence against Carthage,
which would certainly have fallen before him: in Italy the
Greeks would have received him with the same enthusiasm as
in Asia Minor, for he was Setvo9 TrapeXKetv; he would have
won them, concluded treaties with them, and have weakened
348 SITES OF NEAPOLTS AND PALAEPOLIS.
those wlio opposed him so much, that the whole peninsula
would have been his. Livy has a discussion upon this point
which is very beautifully written, but a complete failure: his
national vanity entirely blinds him, and he is egregiously
mistaken in his calculation of the military resources of Italy,
as well as in his belief that all Italy would have united against
Alexander. If he had come to Italy, Rome would certainly
have fallen ; and his death was a necessary ordinance of Provi-
dence in order that Rome might become great.
This was the state of affairs at the time when the war broke
out between Rome and Samnium. The immediate occasion of
the war was the conduct of Neapolis and Palaepolis, the ancient
Parthenope. Palaepolis is mentioned only by Livy: it was an
ancient Cumaean colony, the Cumaeans having taken refuge
there across the sea. Neapolis derives its name from being a
much later settlement of different Greek tribes, and was perhaps
not founded till Olymp. 91, about the time of the Athenian
expedition to Sicily, and as a fortress of the Greeks against the
Sabellians. It is not impossible that the Athenians also may
have had a share in it. Both towns, however, were of Chalcidian
origin and formed one united state, which at that time may
have been in possession of Ischia. Many absurdities have been
written about the site of Palaepolis, and most of all by Italian
antiquaries. We have no data to go upon except the two
statements in Livy, that Palaepolis was situated by the side of
Neapolis, and that the Romans had pitched their camp batween
the two towns. The ancient Neapolis was undoubtedly situated
in the centre of the modern city of Naples above the church of
Sta. Rosa; the coast is now considerably advanced. People have
sought for Palaepolis likewise within the compass of the modern
city, without asking themselves whether there would have been
room for an army to encamp between the two places. I alone
should never have discovered its true site, but my friend, the
Count de Scrre, a French statesman, who in his early life had
been in the army and had thus acquired a quick and certain
military eye, discovered it in a walk which I took with him.
The town was situated on the outer side of Mount Posilipo,
where the quarantine now is; it is an excellent and healthy
situation facing the islands of Nisida and Limon : it may be
that in antiquity there was a port at Palaepolis, and the two
islands still have very good harbours. That point moreover
PIRACY CAUSES THE SAMNITE WAE. 349
had a natural communication with Ischia. Mount Posilipo
with its ramifications lay between the towns at a distance of
about two miles, so that there was sufficient room for the
Koman army to encamp on the hills and thus to cut off the
communication between the two towns. There exist neither
monuments nor coins of Palaepolis. According to the common
supposition, the two towns would have been so near to each
other, that darts thrown from their walls would have met in
their course.
LECTURE XLL
The war was occasioned by piracy or at least by hostihties
committed at sea against the defenceless merchant vessels of
the Romans, who had then no fleet, and strangely enough pre-
tended not to care for the sea, as if such things could be
neglected with impunity. Complaints respecting the division
of the Falernian territory may likewise have contributed to
the outbreak of the war. Such a division was always a great
event; many persons sold their lots, while others settled upon
their farms; and that district became a sore point in the do-
minion of Rome. If, however, this was the cause of the dis-
ruption between the Palaepolitans and Romans, the complaint
of piracy which Dionysius introduces in so declamatory a man-
ner is entirely out of place, since it would be no more than
natural for them to endeavour to disturb the commerce of the
hostile people. The Neapolitans, trusting to their alliance
with the Samnites and Nolanians, refused the reparation which
the Romans demanded of them. The Oscan population had
gradually become predominant at Xola, though it had undoubt-
edly Chalcidean epoeci, who formed a considerable part of the
population. How much its inhabitants had become Hcllenised
may be seen from the Greek symbols on the coins of Nola with
the inscription NflAAIflN. It is in general remarkable, how
easily the Samnites amalgamated with the Greeks ; Strabo calls
them (f)LX,i\\r]ve<;, and the Samnites, without a literature of
their own, were undoubtedly open to that of the Greeks, and
350 THE SAMNITES BETRAYED AT PALAEPOLIS.
endeavoured to speak like the Greeks themselves. The Ko-
mans never agreed well -with the Greeks, to whom the Luca-
nians also were hostile although their civilisation was Greek;
and it certainly cannot be questioned that the Pythagorean
philosophy was established among th(im. The statement that
Pythagoras was a native of one of the Tyrrhenian islands must
mean, that the roots of the theological parts of his philosophy
must principally be sought for among the Pelasgians and in
the religion of Samothrace.
An auxiliary corps of 4000 Samnites and 2000 Nolanians
threw themselves into the towns of Palaepolis and Neapolis;
the Tarentines are likewise said to have stirred up Palaepolis,
for the Tarentines who were very well disposed towards the Sam-
nites employed their money to involve the Romans in war at
a distance. The Romans looked upon the occupation of Palae-
polis by the Samnites as an act of hostility, and brought their
complaints before the diet of Samnium. The evacuation of
the place was a moral impossibility, and the answer which the
Samnites returned was, that as the Romans wished for war,
war they should have, and there was no need to dispute about
trifles. This answer was confirmed by the assembly of the
Samnite people. In the meanwhile the siege of Palaepolis
had already been going on for some time, and the Romans had
no prospect of success, for their art of besieging was still in its
first infancy, and the Greeks opposed them with great technical
skill; the attacks of the Romans therefore produced no eflfect,
and the sea was left open to the Greeks. But treason did what
force was unable to accomplish. NeapoHs possessed ships of
war with which they may frequently have made predatory ex-
cursions against the Roman coasts, which the Romans were
unable to protect. The Samnite garrison, at least the greater
part of it, appears to have been stationed at Palaepolis, and the
Greeks at Neapolis. Two Greeks Charilaus and Nympheus
now betrayed the Samnites to the Roman consul Publilius
Philo : they proposed to the Samnites to make an expedition
against the Roman coast, and the Samnites quitted the city
ready to embark. As the town on the side of the harbour was
protected by a wall, the conspirators closed the gate after the
Samnites had gone out, and admitted the Romans by another
gate. The Samnites found that the ships had been drawn
away from the coast, and were obliged to save themselves as
Q. PUBLILIUS PniLO. 351
well as tliey could. Palaepolis now disappears from history,
and tlicre can be no doubt that it was destroyed on that occa-
sion. Neapolis obtained a favourable alliance with Rome,
from which we may perhaps infer that the conspirators were
Neapolitans. The acquisition of Neapolis was extremely im-
portant to Eome; for thus the two harbours of Nisida and
Naples, from which alone expeditions by sea could be under-
taken against their territory fell into their hands. At that
time Naples was not, as at present, a city of 400,000 inhabitants,
but must have been somewhat like our town of Bonn. This
conquest was made by Q. Publilius Philo pro consule ; he was
the first to whom the consular power was prolonged (a. U. 42 9)
by a senatus-consultum and a plebiscitum, on the proposal of a
tribune, so that his own law concerning plebiscita was applied
to him. The fact of a new magistracy being thus created in
substance though not in form, was a great change in the con-
stitution. Up to that time no one had celebrated a triumph
except during the period of his magistracy, but Publilius
triumphed as proconsul.
This was the beginning of the second Samnite war which,
if we except the Hannibalian, is the greatest, most attractive
and most noble in all the history of antiquity. It is to be
lamented that we know so little about it, for the places where
the battles were fought are mostly passed over in silence ; but
we should not be ungrateful; with some pains we may yet
obtain a satisfactory knowledge of the war. Livy had described
some parts of it with great pleasure, but others with evident
weariness, which was the result of his mode of writing: he
entered on his task without preparation, whence he wrote with
freshness and vigour indeed, but had neither a clear insight
into the histoi'y nor a command of his subject. If he had
made better use of the annals, we should see our way more
clearly. It is to be regretted that the books of Dionysius on
this war are lost, for the few fragments in Appian, who copied
from him, and in Constantine Porphyrogenitus, throw inuch
light upon many points; Dionysius' account of that period
must have been excellent, for the annals were already sufficient
to enable a diligent searcher like him to make out a real his-
tory. There existed some nameless chronicles as early as that
time, though they may have been dry and obscure in their
details : the fact that isochronistic history does not commence
352 THE SECOND SAMNITE WAR.
till a hundred years later, is here of no consequence. Livy
has unfortunately made no use at all of the ancient materials
which formed the foundation of the annals whence he makes
his choice quite arbitrarily when the annals contradicted one
another, and in most cases prefers that which is wrong. He af-
fords us no means of gaining a general view of this war which
lasted twenty-two years; and it was only after many years'
study that I succeeded in forming a clear conception of it.
The war must be divided into several periods : the first ex-
tends from the year A.U. 429 to 433. During this period the
Samnites appear to us in a strange light ; for although they had
wished for the war, yet they were evidently unprepared, and
seem to have had the conviction that they would not be able
to hold out. The instigators of the war must have lost their
popularity, and the war itself was disagreeable and troublesome
to the people. Such a state of things may appear surprising;
but those who have witnessed the great war of the revolution
must remember quite similar circumstances. The case of the
Athenians in the Peloponnesian war also resembles that of the
Samnites, for after the first and second campaigns they wished
for peace; and so did the Venetians after the battle of Ghiera
d'Adda. In the year 1793, the war against France was quite
popular in England (I was myself in England about that time),
for the English remembered the interference of France in the
American war, and still had great expectations fi:om their
colonics : the national hatred too was generally speaking very
great, although a few were in favour of the revolution ; but
when the war was carried on badly, when no objects, at least
no important ones, were gained, and when the power of France
was ever increasing, the war became thoroughly unpopular,
and the general outcry was for peace, so that in order to main-
tain themselves, the ministers were obliged to yield and enter
into negotiations. When, however, the nation became aware
that peace was impossible, they rose in a brilliant manner, and
in 1798 and 1799, the war was again extremely popular. This
observation is very humiliating to those who attach so much
importance to public opinion. Such also was the case with
the Samnites, for when it was proved that the Eomans carried
on the war quite differently from what had been expected, the
Samnites were disappointed and wished for peace. Afterwards,
however, a complete change took place in their minds, for as
FOUR STATES OF THE SAMNITES. 353
the war was protracted, they began to feel as if they couhi
not live without it, especially when it was carried on unsuccess-
fully, for, as in gambling, men will rather perish than withdi'aw
from a contest, and thus give themselves up to the enemy; and
this feeling changed the war into one of guerillas. In the midst of
the war, when these misfortunes were much greater than at
the beginning, the Samnites had arrived at the conviction that
peace was impossible.
The Samnites, as has already been remarked, consisted of
four states, which took the supreme command in turn. This
was a very great disadvantage, for when one general was
elected, the other leaders probably hated and envied him, for
such is always the case among allied states, as we see in the
history of the German empire and the United States: may
God prevent this ever happening in the army of om- German
confederacy ! The unhappy war of the revolution likewise
arose from the fact, that in the campaign of 1799 one general
rejoiced in the defeat of the other. When a great man like
Pontius had the command, and it so happened that the other
praetors were honest men and acted with him, a great advan-
tage might indeed be gained ; but in the year following every
thing was altered again. If the Samnites had been tmited,
they would have been more than a match for the Romans ;
but as it was, the Romans overcame them through the
excellence of their institutions, for various and even most
hostile elements were all firmly concentrated under the one
power of the spirit of Rome. In the art of war, the Samnites
undoubtedly equalled the Romans, for, according to Sallust,
the Romans had adopted their armoiu" and perhaps their whole
mode of warfare from the Samnites, at least we find that in
the battles the annies were drawn up in exactly the same
manner, and the reports of the battles attest that they
fought against each other as equals against equals. I must
here contradict the opinion of General V^andoucourt, who
asserts that the Italian, Spanish and African nations fought
their battles drawn up in the phalanx. Their strength consist-
ed in the sword : the Italicans had cohorts, and undoubtedly
used the pila like the Romans.
The Samnites it appears, had allies; the district from
Frentenum to Lucei'ia being either an allied country or a distinct
canton; but the alliance was so loose that the Frentenians kept
VOL. I. A A
354 NEIGHBOUR STATES OF THE SAMNITES.
entirely aloof during the war. To the north of the Sainnites
there existed the confederacy of the Marsians, Marrucinians,
Vestinians and Pelignians; and of these the Vestinians were
on friendly terms with the Samnitcs, while the others were
indifferent to them and even attached to the Romans. The
situation of the Samnites was thus very perilous, but if they
had carried on the Avar on the Liris as far as Capua, which
seems in fact to have been their plan, they would have been
able to have maintained themselves against the Romans; but
the latter had a far bolder plan : for, as in the Latin war, they
again formed a semicircle round Samnium, a plan which now
involved much more danger and was on a greater scale than
in the Latin war. The Samnites were cordially hated by the
Apulians, among whom the ruling class consisted of Oscans,
who may either have subdued the ancient Pelasgian population
and amalgamated with them, or have expelled them. The
country of Apulia is surrounded by mountains which form a
horse-shoe, so that the country presents the aspect of a theatre ;
the mountains themselves form a part of Apulia, but the real
country below these mountains is a table land of a chalky soil,
and almost as hot as Leon in Spain. The Apulians had two prin-
cipal towns, Arpi and Canusium, each of which was the mistress
of a large territory and jealous of the other. The Samnites had
conquered the eastern hills of Luceria; and the plain, too,
may have been threatened by them. As Tarentum was allied
with the Samnites, the Apulians applied to the Romans, and
much may have been gained by their mediation. It was a
gigantic resolution of the Romans to transfer their army to
Apulia: thei'e were two roads, the one passing through the
country of the Aequians, who were friends of the Romans,
along the lake of Celano, by Sulmona and through the narrow
country of Samnium ; the other led through the country of
the Sabines to Reate, Civita Ducale, and the fearful passes of
Antrodoco (the ancient Interocrea) which are of such a kind
that a gallant people may there resist an enemy for a very long
time, but which were so disgracefully abandoned by the Nea-
politans in 1821; the road then proceeds to Pescara on the
eastern coast, and thus reaches Apulia by an enormous circuit.
The two roads were probably taken by the Romans at different
times, but at first they marched along the former; now as long
as they were not sure of the Vestinians, but were on good
CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY. 355
terms with the other nations, they certainly could take the
former road; for on the latter, the Vestinians were the only
one of the four northern Sabellian tribes through whose country
they were obliged to pass in order to reach Apidia; in addi-
tion to which they would have had to fight their way through
the territory of the Frentenians. But if they had chosen the
former road, the Marsians and Pelignians would, unquestion-
ably, have opposed them as much as the Vestinians, since it
was their interest not to alloAV the Romans to march into
Apulia. Xow, as on that occasion the Vestinians are called
peaceful, it is clear that the Romans marched through the
passes of Antrodoco. Had the Samnites been united, they
ought to have made every effort to support the Vestinians ; but
this was not done, in consequence of which the Romans
defeated and compelled them to submit. They therefore estab-
lished themselves in Apulia, and thereby obliged the northern
confederates to keep up a good understanding with one another.
It was a great advantage to be in possession of Apulia : the
country of the four Sabellian people as well as that of the
northern Samnites, the Pentrians, Bovianians and even of the
Frentenians, is a mountainous and pasture country in the
Abruzzo. During the winter those districts are covered with
snow, and it is impossible to keep sheep there ; whence during
the winter they are sent into Apulia, which is then covered
with beautiful and excellent grass: in the spring the shepherd
drives his flock again into the mountains. In southern
countries the great features of nature always remain the same,
and they are at the present day just what they were in antiquity.
The establishments at Tarentum for dyeing wools show that
the breeding of sheep was very extensive as early as that time.
The use of those pastures was of the highest importance to the
Marsians, Marrucinians, Pelignians, etc., and the Romans, being
in possession of Apulia and protecting the pastures for their
allies, obliged them to maintain a friendly understanding, and
at the same time pressed hard upon the northern Samnites.
Hence we see that the Romans did not undertake that formid-
able expedition at random, but that their course was thoroughly
justified by the nature of the country; nevertheless, they did
not venture upon the hazardous undertaking, until they saw
that it was unavoidable ; and that this was the only Avay in which
the war could be brought to a close.
aa2
356 KOMAN AI.LIANCE WITH THE i.UCANIANS.
LECTURE XLII.
The Romans had formed an alliance with the Lucanians as
well as with the Apulians. The Lucanians are called a Sara-
nlte colony, which must be understood in a different sense
from what we mean by a colonial city. It is certain that the
Lucanians were an offshoot from the Samnites, from whom
they had separated themselves. They dwelt among the
Oenotrians (the ancient Pelasgians) and Greeks; and as the
Samnites were Sabellians who had become Oscans, so the
Lucanians were Oenotrians who had become Samnites: they
had commenced extending themselves about Olymp. 80, that
is, at the time of the fall of Sybaris, which opened those
districts to the Italian nations. We have no information
respecting the relation in which the Lucanians at first stood
to the Sanmites. The territory of Lucania is larger than that
of Samnium; but there was not a corresponding proportion in
the powers of the two nations, as we see from the census lists.
The Lucanians were never powerful, not even in much later
times, when the Samnites were greatly reduced; the number
of their capita did not amount to 30,000, that is much less
than half that of the Samnites. This shews that the greatest
part of the Lucanian population had no share in the sovereignty,
which was concentrated in a few places only, such as Petelia;
the country was distracted by parties. One portion of the
people resolved to join the Romans; but this can have been
only a small majority; for soon afterwards a revolution took
place in which that alliance was broken, and the Sam-
nites were invited to occupy their fortified places. We are
acquainted with the treaty of the Lucanians and Romans from
Livy, but all the rest of his narrative relative to these events
must be greatly modified, as for example when he says, that
the Tarentines, frightened by the power of the Romans, pre-
vailed upon the Lucanian nobles to tell the people that the
Lucanian ambassadors had been cruelly treated by the Ronians,
at which the people are said to have been enraged, and actuated
by this feeling, to have thrown themselves into the arms of
the Samnites. This is the same story as is related of Zopyrus
and Sextus Tarquinius. We here see that treacherous blind-
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMNITE WAR. 357
ness of party spirit, which is so saddening in the history of the
later Greek states. The Samnites thus unexpectedly became
masters of Lucania, and availed themselves of its resources,
both in men and money, for their own advantage.
These wars, as far as we can survey them, are from the
beginning extremely intei'esting, on account of the determina-
tion, skill, and firmness with which they were conducted.
They resemble a single combat between two excellent cham-
pions, for the two parties aimed at each other's life, directing
their blow with the greatest boldness at each other's heart.
They fought with the same resolution as in modern times has
been shewn in attacks upon particular places. If after the
battle of Cannae, Hannibal, with his enormous talent, had had
the same resolution — if he had not been too cautious, but had
followed the same plan against Rome as the Samnites did, he
would decidedly have triumphed over his enemies. Each of
the belligerent parties calculated very much upon the dis-
affection of those who were dependent upon the other. The
frontier of the Samnites was in the Abruzzo above Sora, and
Casinum was their city. The course of their operations seems
always to have been determined by those mountains. Thence
also they acted on the offensive, and that with the definite
object of causing an insurrection among the Latins, who
fourteen years before had been independent, and y^eve there-
fore inclined to rebel. The traces of a partial insurrection are
obscured in Livy, but are nevertheless discernible ; and we
find, that even Tusculum, in conjunction with Privernum and
Velitrae, rose in arms; but the Romans always quelled these
insurrections, and the consequence was the destruction of
many of the Latin towns. All this can be inferred also from
certain allusions; for example, from the proposal of a tribune
(which, however, was not carried), to destroy the Tusculans
altogether. To the same circumstances must be referred the
strange story in Livy of a sudden nocturnal alarm in the city,
as if the enemy were within the walls; for as the armies were
at a great distance, an insurrection of the Latins naturally
produced terror up to the very walls of Rome.
The Samnites endeavoured to penetrate through the Apen-
nines to the sources of the Liris, and straightway to advance
towards Rome. The Romans at the same time crossed the
Vulturnus, and tried to reach Saticida in Campania, and
358 ^ VALERIUS CORVUS.
tKence to invade Samnium. Each was little concerned where
the blows of the other fell, provided it could itself inflict a
deep wound. This method of carrying on the war had pecu-
liar advantages for both. For the liomans it was an advantage
that the Samnites rav.-iged only the territory of their allies,
whereas the Komans inflicted sufferings on the Samnites
themselves. This, however, could not have the same evil
effect as the ravages of the Samnites produced upon the dispo-
sition of the Roman allies. It is a mere accident that we
know that the seat of this war was in the neighbourhood of
the modern abbey of Subiaco, on the frontier of the Aequians
and Hernicans, among the high mountains which separate the
valleys of the Liris and the Anio. Livy states^ that the
enemies faced each other near Imbrinium, in Samnium; but
even the early Italian commentators, such as Sigonius and
Hermolaus Barbarus, justly remark that Imbriviimi must be
meant; and they identify the place with that from which the
emperor Claudius constructed his aqueducts, in the country of
the Aequians, near Subiaco. Livy shews too few traces of
accuracy and care to prevent us adopting this correction,
which is commended not only by probability, but by positive
necessity. There the Samnites established themselves, and
thus cut off the Romans from the road to Apulia, whereby
the latter were obliged to keep up the communication on the
road by Antrodoco. That district is very important in mili-
tary history. Circumstances wore so dangerous an aspect,
that in the third year of the war, the Romans appointed
L. Papirius Cursor to the dictatorship, the consul L. Furius
Camillus being ill. Papirius Cursor is remembered among
the first generals of his nation. By his side stood M. Valerius
Corvus, who was of about the same age, and the younger
Q. Fabius Maximus, whom Valerius Corvus probably survived.
M. Valerius Corvus was the most popular man of his age.
He was free from all political party spirit; he loved the
people, and was beloved by them, and the soldiers had
unlimited confidence in him. In his leisure hours he felt as
happy among his soldiers as in the midst of his family; he
shared his labours and his pleasures with them : his popularity
was the inheritance of the Valerii. It was his personal
character that enabled him to quell the insurrection of the
year A.U. 413, which no one else woidd have been able to
accomplish.
L. TAPIRIUS CURSOR. — Q. FABIUS. 359
L. Papirius Cursor was a rough, and properly speaking a
barbarous man, who had somewhat of the character of Suwarow,
except that the latter was a far more educated man, for he was
well acquainted with German, French, and English literature,
and possessed great judgment. Cursor had enormous bodily
strength; and, like the emperor Maximinus, kept it up by
eating and drinking like an athlete. He tormented and
annoyed the soldiers by excessive severity, and rendered their
service as hard and diflicult as possible, thinking that the
soldiers would thereby become all the more useful. Towards
the officers and commanders of the allies he was equally
severe. It was his delight to see those around him tremble;
and he would not pardon the slightest neglect, but inflicted
corporal and even capital punishment upon those who were
guilty of it. He was generally hated, and looked upon as a
demon, in whom, however, the republic possessed an invin-
cible bulwark, which in case of need might afford a last
refuge.
Q. Fabius was a different man from Valerius Corvus. He
does not appear to have been so cheerful and loveable a
character as Valerius; but he was withal comis, a gentle com-
mander, and a mild and wise man. Great reliance was placed
on his wisdom and good fortune; in the latter, Papirius was
inferior to him. He too was highly popular, but not in the
same manner as M. Valerius ; for it seems to have been owing
more to the respect than to the love which was felt for him.
He was regarded as the first man of his age, whence he
received the surname Maximus. fie was no less great as a
statesman than as a general, and was a rallying point for all
parties. By birth and rank he was an aristocrat, but a very
sensible one, and in many cases he was able as arbitrator to
bend the oligarchy. His whole life shews that he was in
earnest in everything, and able to control his own feelings,
and sacrifice them to the good of the commonwealth. It is
these tliree men who give to the history of that period its
peculiar interest.
The dictator faced the Samnites in the neighbourhood of
Subiaco, but at the same time another army was stationed in
the neighbourhood of Capua to protect Campania against the
inroads of the enemy. The dictator is said to have perceived
that the auspices had not been correctly observed. It was im-
360 FABIUS DEFEATS THE SAMSITES.
possible for him to take new ones where he was, the auspices
differing according to the localities, some being valid at Eome,
others in the enemy's country; hence he was obliged to return
to Rome to take fresh auspices on the Capitol. Wliether it
really was for this, or any other reason, he left the camp and
went to Rome, leaving the command to Q. Fabius, his master
of the horse, expressly enjoining him not to act on the offen-
sive. This injunction may have been well founded ; but it is
not impossible that it arose from a want of confidence in the
}'Ounger man, or from a desire not to allow him an opportunity
of distinguishing himself The Samnites very soon observed,
that the Romans were not permitted to fight, and they there-
fore provoked and pressed them all the more : the inactivity of
the Romans was dangerous^ for the Latins in their rear were
ever ready to revolt, if the Samnites should offer them support,
though by themselves they were unable to undertake anything.
Under these circumstances, Fabius with youthful confidence
resolved to give battle to the Samnites : he gained the victory,
and according to some authorities even defeated the enemy
twice. As the army regarded the dictator's order only as the
result of his ill-will and envy, the master of the horse sent his
report, not to Papirius Cursor, but direct to the senate, disre-
garding him who had the auspices, and through whom alone
the report ought to have been sent. He then burnt the booty,
in order to deprive the dictator of the spoils for his triumph.
In the city the fear of the consequences was undoubtedly not
less than the joy at the victory. Papirius forthwith returned
to the camp; and his speedy arrival there shews that the army
cannot have been far away from Rome. Surrounded by his
twenty-four lictors, he summoned the master of the horse before
his tribunal, and only asked him whether he had fought against
his orders or not. When every thing was ready for the exe-
cution of Fabius, the whole army assumed so threatening an
attitude, and the general iudignatiou at Papirius was so great,
that he himself began to hesitate, and at the urgent request of
the soldiers, granted a respite until the following day. In the
night Fabius fled to Rome and applied to the senate ; but during
its meeting, and while Fabius was standing in the midst of the
hall, Papirius himself also appeared, and demanded his victim.
Although the senate afterwards shewed on several occasions
that it was not favourable to Fubius, yet sympathy for the
CONSEQUENCES OF THE VICTORY OF FABIUS. 361
youthful hero was then very general, and it was resolved to
protect him. Papirius did not dare to use force: the situation
of Fabius, however, was not so desperate as Livy describes it,
for we know from Verrius Flaccus, that the patricians had the
right of appeal from the verdict of the dictator to the curies.
Livy's statement that he invoked the tribunes, is either a con-
fusion caused by the expression, provocatio ad popuhim, or it
was a sanction of the decree of the curies by the plebes, in
which case the whole people would have granted an amnesty
to Fabius. Papirius even now refused to yield, but the deter-
mination of the two orders snatched his victim from him.
Livy's statement, that he became reconciled to Fabius, is im-
possible. Fabius resigned his magistracy, and Papirius took
another master of the horse. The object of general hatred,
he returned to the army, and the unfortunate issue of an en-
gagement was attributed to him. This happened in the year
A.u. 430.
Fabius is said to have gained his victory chiefly by having
ordered i\\Q frena to be taken from the horses, and thus caused
the cavalry to dash upon the enemy. If by frena we under-
stand reins, the statement would be absurd : and the difficulty
may be explained by the bits which have been discovered at
Herculaneum and Pompeii. The bridles and bits of the horses
used by the Romans were extremely cruel ; if therefore instead
of these, the Roman general ordered the gentler ones of the
Greeks described by Xenophon to be used, it is natural that the
horses, thus eased, should have pressed forward with greater
cheerfulness and vigour.
The war took such a tvirn that the Samnites were in great
difficult}'-, and regretted having undertaken it. They concluded
a truce on condition of their giving pay and clothing to the
Roman soldiers, and then began to negociate for peace, which
they thought they might obtain by yielding to the first de-
mands of the Romans in reference to the garrison at Neapolis
and the recognition of the colony at Fregellac. But the Ro-
mans now undoubtedly made quite diffijrent claims, demanding,
in addition, that Lucania and Apulia should be evacuated, and,
what was always done in such a peace, that the Samnites
should be reduced to the same position as if they had been en-
tirely subdued: this was one of the maxims which contributed
to the greatness of the Romans. The attempt to conclude a
362 P.iPIUS BEUTULUS.
peace was unsuccessful, the war was renewed, and the Romans
now conducted it with great energy. Fahius, who was made
consul, led his army into Apulia and took Luceria and many
other towns of the Apulians and Samnites. His repeated vic-
tories compelled the Samnites to withdraw from Fregellae in
order to oppose his progress. The other Roman army was also
successful, and as the Romans gained great advantages in the
whole of the following campaign, the Samnites came to the
determination to seek peace at any cost. They now vented all
their indignation upon Papius Brutulus, the man whom they
regarded as the soul of the whole war, and who belonged to
the family which, two hundred years later, produced C Papius
Mutilus. The Romans asrain concluded a truce, for which the
Samnites made great sacrifices. We are indebted to the ex-
cerpts from Dionysius for a knowledge of these transactions:
the Samnites were ready to do every thing in their power to
punish the authors of the hostilities; but the Romans unques-
tionably demanded the surrender of Papius Brutulus, and the
resolution which he took shews that he was a great man. He
had lived for his countrymen, and served them as long as they
wished to be great, but now that they were desponding, life
had no value in his estimation, and he made away with himself,
in order that his fellow-citizens might be able to say that the
author of the war had atoned for his offence. This is one of
the most heroic acts in all antiquity, and is greater even than
the similar deed of Cato. The Samnites, to their own disgrace,
sent his body to Rome.
As the Romans had, on the first application for peace gone
beyond the demands they had made before the war, so they
now again exceeded the terms they had last proposed, demand-
ing that the Samnites should recognise the supremacy of Rome
{inajestatem populi Romaiii comiter colere). The Samnite
ambassadors had appealed to the humanity of the Romans,
they had declared tliat they would accept any terms, if the
Romans were resolved not to give up a single point, but that
they could not consent to recognise the Roman supremacy,
since upon this point the national diet alone could decide.
The consequence of such a recognition would have been a
state of perfect dependence in all their relations with foreign
states : they would have been obliged to give up their alliance
with the Tarentines and Lucanians; and Roman commissioners
SIEGE OF LUCERIA. 363
would have appeared among them with the right to enquire
whether the treaty was duly observed. Sucli terms were
intolerable to the Samnite people : they had lost their leader,
humbled themselves, and imploringly prayed for a suitable
peace ; but all was now in vain ; they resolved to perish to a
man rather than conclude such a peace as was offered to them.
This time the Komans had carried their maxim too far: the
Samnites exerted their utmost power, and commenced the war
in Apulia on account of the physical importance of that coun-
try. Luceria with its Roman garrison was besieged: it had
originally been a Samnite town, but had been conquered by
the Apulians. The Romans also changed their mode of warfare,
and as the main army of the Samnites was stationed in Apulia,
resolved to concentrate all their forces too in that country:
they had before directed their attention to Ap^ilia, and had
indeed found some allies there, but without gaining a firm
footing. They would accordingly have been obliged to compel
the Vestinians to allow them to march through their territory,
a plan which seemed to be dangerous, because they might thus
become involved in a war with the Marsians, ]\Iarrucinians,
and Pelignians. But there the unfortunate jealousy among
the Samnite tribes would have come to their assistance; other
nations also to whom the Romans were troublesome, such as
the Aequians and even the Campanians, sided in their hearts
with the Samnites, though they did not wish the latter to gain
a decided victory: those little petty nations imagined that the
Romans and Samnites would mutually weaken each other, and
that they themselves might derive advantages from this state
of things.
When it was known that Luceria was besieged, both consu-
lar armies wanted to march to Apulia, and resolved to take
the nearest way, forcing their road through the midst of
Samnium, for the Samnites had become contemptible in their
eyes. They perhaps took the road by which A. Cornelius
Cossus had gone, viz. the one from Capua by Beneventum to
Luceria. C. Pontius, the general of the Samnites and one of
the greatest men of antiquity, who had foreseen this, left at
Luceria only as many of his troops as were necessary to con-
tinue the blockade, and encamped on the road Avhlch the
Romans had to pass, near Caudium, the capital of the Caudine
Samnites: that town afterwards disappeared from the face of
384 ROMANS DEFEATED AT CAUDIUM.
the earthy tliat there might be no trace of the disgrace of the
Romans. Tlic Romans descended a defile into a valley, on
the opposite side of which another pass formed a steep ascent
up the mountain : they had not yet met the enemy anywhere,
and therefore advanced very carelessly. The army, forming a
long column, had descended the one pass, and the first part of
the column was beginning to ascend the opposite defile, but
found it completely barricaded with stones and trees. The
Sajnnit^s had probably made preparations of the same kind as
the Tyrolese in the year 1809, who had placed on the heights
large trunks of trees fastened together with ropes, and behind
them huge blocks of stone, so that when they cut the ropes
the enemy in the valley below were cmshed under the falling
masses : this seems to be suggested by the mention of stones
in Livy. According to his account, the Romans behaved on
this occasion in a most cowardly ma]iner, for they are said to
have attempted to return, and finding that the opposite path
was likewise obstructed, they made up their minds to encamp
in the valley. This is an absurdity, for an army thus shut in
would under all circumstances fight with the courage of despair
and endeavour to escape. There can be no doubt that a
pitched battle was fought in which the Romans were defeated,
as is clearly stated by Cicero {cuvi male j^ugnatum ad Caudiwn
esset). Appian, of whose work we have only fragments rela-
tive to those events, states that the superior oflicers who
survived with the consuls, signed the peace; he mentions
twelve tribunes, but as the complete army contained twenty-
four tribunes, twelve must have fallen, or at least have been
severely wounded. Zonaras, also, speaks of a lost battle and
the conquest of the Roman camp. In urging the point that
there was no engagement at Caudium, Livy displays a truly
strange kind of vanity : he describes the Romans as cowards
in order to conceal the disgrace of a defeat. The particulars
of this affair are buried in great obscurity, but the result of
my investigations is as follows. According to Livy's account
the consuls only promised that the Roman people woidd con-
clude peace, and that beyond this nothing was agreed to; so
that he represents the Romans as not having been faithless;
but that half of the Roman equites (six hundred) were given
as hostages. But the afiair was in reality quite dififerent:
Appian, who derived his information from Dionysius, says that
HERENXirS PONTIUS. 365
tKe hostages were given , eto? a7ra<i 6 Brifj,o<; Tyv eipr'jvrjv i7n-\jn]-
(f)i(rrj, that is, until the curies and tribes should have ratified
the peace. Its terms were fair; C. Pontius, not knowing, in
the extreme joy of success, what use to make of it, summoned
his father Herennius Pontius, a friend of the Tarentines and
especially of Arcliytas* into his camp, to ask him how he
should treat the Romans. Herennius answered that all should
be cut to pieces; and when the son replied, that this was inhu-
man, the father is reported to have advised his son to dismiss
them all without injury, in order to place the Romans under
an obligation by this act of grace. But the Romans of that
time would have laughed at such an evtjOeia. The meaning
of the story can only be this: — Herennius meant to say "The
only thing that can be done, is to destroy the enemy; how
can you have any doubt about that? If you are at all in
doubt, you had better dismiss them at once." But C. Pontius
was a high-minded man, he had a great Italian feeling, and it
was impossible for him to annihilate the army of a nation
which protected Italy against invading foreigners, especially
Gauls and Carthaginians; he did not doubt that a lasting
peace might be concluded with the Romans, if they could
be secured; we fortunately knoAv its terms from the frag-
ments. The consuls and all the commanders pledged their
word of honour that the people would ratify the peace ; and
imtil then the equites, the sons of the most distinguished fami-
lies, were to remain as hostages, the status quo ante bellum was
to be restored, all conquered places were to be given back to
the Samnites, the colonists were of coui'se to be withdrawn
from Fregellae, and the ancient equal alliance between the Ro-
mans and Samnites was to be renewed. Compensations in
money or any humiliating conditions are not mentioned at all ;
the Romans were to depart, but leave behind all their arms,
' Herennius appears to have been altogether a model of wisdom among the
Samnites. According to a passage ia Cicero, de Senectute, he was one of tlie
interlocutors with Archytas in a philosophical dialogue of some Pj'thagorcan
philosopher, — a rem;xi-kable proof to what extent tliose Italiote towns were
familiar with the Sabellian people, and how little they looked upon tliem as
barbarians. For the Opicans they had a great contempt, and probably made a
marked distinction between them and the Samnites. Tlie intercourse with the
Greeks explains liow it came to pass, that Nimia, the source of all Subdlian
wisdom, was regarded as a Pythagorean: this is a genuine Sabine tradition.
They went so far ia their friendly feeling, that tlie Greeks insisted upon the
Samnites being a Spartan colony. — N.
366 PEACE RATIFIED.
money, waggons, horses, etc. This is in accordance with
the general Italian law of nations. The passing of the
Romans under the yoke is described as superbia on the part
of the Samnites, but was quite in the natural course of things :
the Samnites had completely surrounded the Romans with
palisades: some of these were taken out, and a gate was formed,
through which the Romans were allowed to pass one by one
unarmed. The same thing had often been done before, and
was perfectly natural. It should be remarked, that Pontius
was so far from being cruel, that, according to Appian, he
granted to those who departed, sumpter horses to carry the
wounded to Rome and provisions for their journey. Never
has a great victory been more nobly used. The question now
is whether the peace was ratified by the Roman people, for
here lies the cause of so grave a charge, that Livy places it in
the back ground. The fact of the peace having been ratified
is attested by the circumstance that the tribunes of the people
were delivered up to the Samnites; they accordingly must
either have sanctioned the decree of the curies regardino- the
peace, or have made a formal proposal to the plebes for that
purpose. A tribune of the people was not allowed to spend a
night out of the city ; and therefore could not have been among
those who had concluded the peace with tlie enemy in the
camp. The only other possible way of explaining the circum-
stance would be to suppose, that by a formal decree, a tribune
was sent to the army; but even this can be conceived only on
the supposition that he was sent thither for the purpose of
ratifying the peace. This was necessary in order to recover
the hostages, and therefore the peace was ratified, to be after-
wards broken, under the pretext that the consul and tribunes
who had brought the motion before the senate and the plebes,
were traitors and ought to be delivered up to the Samnites. This
is the most detestable act in Roman history, and surely the
Romans had good reason to conceal it; in order to do this,
Livy has corrupted and distorted the history of the whole of
the year following, by stating that in it the Romans, at the
conquest of Lucretia, recovered their hostages, who considering
that the peace had been so shamefully broken, would certainly
have been massacred long before.
PERJURY OF THE ROMANS. 367
LECTURE XLIII.
The existence of the peace is further attested by the events
which took place afterwards; for in the very next year we (hid
the Samnites in possession of Luceria and Fregellae : it is said,
indeed, that the latter place was conquered, but this may be a
forgery, or the colonists w^ere unAvilling to quit their homes,
and the Romans may then have left the place to be taken by
the Samnites. At any rate the latter occupied Fregellae, which
was a matter of great importance, if the war should break out
again; for Fregellae commands the Latin road leading from
Tusculum through the country of the Hernicans to the upper
Liris and Campania. The Romans therefore now had only the
road by Terracina, Lautulae and the lower Liris in the
neighbourhood of Minturnae : moreover when a Roman army
was stationed in Campania, and another marched by Subiaco
into Apulia, the communication between the two was cut off.
Of still more importance was the subsequent occupation of Sora
by the Samnites, not only for the reasons already mentioned,
but because they thereby acquired a basis for their operations.
The calamity of Caudium belongs to the year of the city 433,
according to Cato ; and this forms the conclusion of the first
period of the war.^
The Romans now cancelled the peace, and delivered up to
the Samnites the consuls and other commanders who had sworn
to it : by this means they endeavoured to escape the punishment
for their perjury, and it was perhaps for this purpose that they
had carried their hypocrisy so far as to cause the peace to be
decreed by the tribes and not by the centuries, in order to
exclude the auspices, and thus to avoid coming into collision
with the law of religion. Livy, on the occasion of the surrender
of the tribunes, indulges in a perfectly senseless piece of
declamation : the tribunes had to meet their fate as well as the
consuls, and in so deep a humiliation of their people, they
could hardly look upon their personal misfortunes as anything
extraordinary. It is further related, that the consul Postumius
kicked the fetialis who delivered him up to the Caudines, with
' In the Lectures of 1826-7, Nicbuhr fixed the end of the first i^eriod hefore
the defeat of Caudium, so that the second period would be that of the success
of the Samnite arms. -Ed.
368 HONOURABLE CONDUCT OF C. PONTIUS.
these words: "Now the Romans may carry on the war with
justice, for I am a Samnite citizen and liave violated the law
of nations." This sounds quite absurd, but it is nevertheless
possible, for we know from Velleius Paterculus, that previously
to the outbreak of the war isopolity had been established with
a portion of the Samnites, and these Samnites may have been
those very Caudines; now as every Roman on going into exile
mifjht assume the franchise of such a state, Postumius, accordino-
to the forms of the law of nations, may have claimed for himself
the franchise of the Caudines. By such a detestable farce he
imagined that he was drawing the punishment of heaven upon
the Samnites. But however this may be, the peace was broken
in a most unprincipled manner, and this act forms a glaring
contrast with the noble generosity of C. Pontius, who sent back
all the prisoners, saying, that if this principle was to be followed,
the Romans ought to send all their legions back to Caudium,
in order that the affair might be restored in integrum, and that
the individuals were not his enemies. This shews Caius Pontius
to have been an extraordinary man, and the Samnite people to
have possessed great moral worth.
The Samnites continued to gain great advantages, but none
that were lasting, and the Romans, who made immense efforts,
returned to their former plan of operation, that is, they conducted
the war against Samnium from Apulia and on the western
frontier. Publilius Philo and L. Papirius Cursor were elected
consuls : the latter went to ApuUa ; the former is said to have
fought on the road which Avas so unfortunate for the Romans
in the year 433, and to have forced his way to Papirius who
was stationed near Arpi. This is not very probable, but we
cannot speak with any certainty about it. The Romans
established themselves at Arpi which was friendly to them, and
from it they carried on the siege of Luceria. There Pontius
is said to have been blockaded with 7000 Samnites and the
600 Roman hostages, to have been obliged to capitulate, and
to have been dismissed after having passed under the yoke.
But the whole story is nothing but an invention of vanity.
Diodorus' accounts of these times deserve great attention; we
know not whence he derived his materials, it may be from
Fabius or from Timaeus; that he made use of the latter at
least, is very possible, for Timaeus may have written the histoiy
of this period as an introduction to his history of Pyrrhus, or
EXEIlTIOiSrS OF THE ROMANS. 369
in bis histories of Sicily and Italy. The statements of Diodorus
are very remarkable though they are extremely fragmentary
and unequal. He sometimes drops the thread of his narrative
and takes it up again at random ; be is on the whole a very
miserable historian; bis work contains names of places which
are now quite lost : some are evidently mistakes and perhaps of
the author himself, but others are simply unknown to us.
Livy's account of the year 434 (the consuls at that time entered
upon their office in September, so that what he relates belongs
to the spring of 435) occurs in Diodorus under the year 439,
which is far more probable, for it is not likely that Luceria
was conquered twice. The consuls undoubtedly confined
themselves to making preparations, and reducing to obedience
those of the allies who had become rebellious. The Eomans
now made the greatest exertions in Apulia, most of whose
inhabitants they subdued; for in A.u. 436 and 437 there
was a truce between them and the Samnites, which had been
effected by the mediation of the Tarentines, who were greatly
concerned about the restoration of peace, since they dreaded
lest the Romans should permanently establish themselves in
their neighbourhood. The trvice at this period was a mis-
fortune for the Samnites; and there can be no doubt that
C. Pontius was not invested with the supreme command,
owing to the jealousy of the other cantons. The Romans
already began to assume an imposing attitude, but in A.U. 438,
the war again burst forth with extreme violence. It is full of
the most remarkable vicissitudes of fortune ; the ever memor-
able campaign of the year 1757 indeed is more brilliant, but
we anight also compare it with that of the Samnites. They
conquered Sora by treachery, whence Ave see that, pursuing
the same plan as they had adopted at the beginning of the
war, they again endeavoured to extend their sway on the
Upper Liris. The Romans, on the other hand, with that
lionlike intrepidity which characterises both nations in this
war, laid siege to Saticula in the neighbourhood of Capua, for
the purpose of gaining ground against Samnium, and disturb-
ing the Samnites by a diversion. I may here pass over the
detail. One Roman army was already in the interior of
Samnium, and the other in Apulia, but both were almost
surrounded, so that a report of the danger reached Rome.
The Samnites had strengthened themselves on the Liris, and
VOL.1. B B
370 Q. FABIUS. — Q. AULIUS.
the Romans^ perceiving tliat it was tlie object of all their
movements to cut off Campania from Rome, sent a detach-
ment under the dictator Q. Fabius, with the greatest haste, to
the pass of Lautulae, whence he was to join the array in
Campania. But even Fabius was not invincible. The Sam-
nites came across the mountains behind Fundi and occupied
the narrow pass, the Thermopylae of that country. The
Romans, who seem to have fallen in with them unexpectedly,
were completely defeated and put to flight, as is clearly stated
by Diodorus (a.u. 438 or 439); Q. Auhus, the master of the
horse, allowed himself to be cut to pieces. This victory pro-
duced a mighty revolution, for the Samnites now spread into
Latium. Satricum joined them, and the nations, far and
wide, either actually revolted, or showed a hostile disposition.
In what manner fortune turned is a point on which Livy
leaves us in the dark, because the preceding defeats are only
slightly alluded to by him. The Samnites were besieging a
place which Diodorus calls Kinna (we do not know what place
is meant). The Romans, in relieving it, completely defeated
the enemy, and then again subdued the revolted towns. One
of the revolted people were the Ausonians or Auruncans,
about the mouth of the Liris, who had probably intended
to remain neutral. Some of those who may have been most
compromised now displayed features of baseness which one
would hardly think possible. Twelve Auruncans came and
sun-endered their towns to the Romans, who destroyed them;
which Livy, with his kindly feeling, relates with horror, but
in a political point of view the destruction was quite right.
The more difficult the circumstances were, the more necessary
was it for them to strike terror into their subjects, for they
could not calculate upon any attachment. Livy says Deleta
Ausonum gens vix certo defectionis crimine, an expression we
cannot perhaps take in its strict sense. The disposition to
rebel extended as far as Praeneste, the revolt of which place in
this very year may be inferred from Livy, for under A.u. 449,
in speaking of the Praenestine Q. Anicius, who was then
plebeian aedile, he says, qui panels annis ante hostis fuerat.
But most of these people, in going thus far, only injured
themselves without benefiting the Samnites. None of them
wished that the sovereignty of Rome should pass into the
hands of the Samnites, but all were anxious to remain separate
TURNING POINT OF THE WAR. 371
between the two in their miserable independence. If they
had been prudent they would have endeavoured to unite with
Rome, and Rome would readily have received them. It is a
pity that Livy passes over these painful reports, and does not
explain in what manner the two Roman armies contrived to
escape from their perilous situation. This must have taken
place, and deprived the Samnites of their advantage. Livy
himself says, omnes circa populi defecerant. We are indebted
to Diodorus for our knowledge that the army of Fabius saved
the Romans. By dint of a careful examination, we can in
some measure determine the whole extent of the insurrection.
According to Diodorus, Capua actually revolted ; while accord-
ing to Livy it was only suspected, and the lead